:^ 


^    Library 

UNIVERSITY   OF 
CALIFORNIA 
SAN  0IE«O 

V. 


■^ 


z 


,1'    '--■   —) 

[J-^  C/p 

/^.=?3 

Y.  :.. 

PRINTING  TYPES 

THEIR  HISTORY,   FORMS,   AND  USE 


PRINTING  TYPES 

THEIR  HISTORY,  FORMS,  AND  USE 
A  STUDY  IJV  SURVIVALS 

BY 

DANIEL  BERKELEY  UPDIKE 

WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 

'^JVunca  han  temdo,  ni  tienen  las  artes  otros 
enemigos  que  los  ignor antes" 

VOLUME  n 


CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD   UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


First  Printing,  August,  1922 
Second  Printing,  January,  1923 


D.  B.  UPDIKE,  THE  MERRYMOUNT  PRESS,  BOSTON,  U.  S.  A. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

VOLUME  II 


CHAPTER 

XV.  TYPES  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS:  1500-1800 


Page 


I.  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PLANTIN  PRESS  3 

II.  THE  ELZEVIR  EDITIONS  15 

III.  OTHER  EXAMPLES  OF  NETHERLANDS  PRINTING  23 
§  1.  XVI  CENTURY  24 
§  2.  XVII  CENTURY  28 
§  3.  XVIII  CENTURY  32 

IV.  NETHERLANDS  FOUNDRIES  AND  SPECIMENS  35 

XVI.  SPANISH  TYPES  :  1500-1800 

I.  EXAMPLES  OF  SPANISH  PRINTING  45 

§  1.  XVI  CENTURY  60 

§  2.  XVII  CENTURY  67 

§  3.  XVIII  CENTURY  70 

II.   SPANISH  FOUNDRIES  AND  SPECIMENS  80 

XVII.  ENGLISH  types:   1500-1800 

I.   FROM  PYNSON  TO  WILLIAM  CASLON  88 

II.  WILLIAM  CASLON  AND  THE  CASLON  FOUNDRY  101 

III.  JOHN  BASKERVILLE  107 

IV.  WILSON,  FRY,  MARTIN,  AND  OTHER  FOUNDERS  116 
V.  EXAMPLES  OF  ENGLISH  PRINTING  124 

§  1.  XVI  CENTURY  125 

§  2.   XVII  CENTURY  130 

§  3.   XVIII  CENTURY  133 

XVIII.  TYPES  USED  IN  THE    AMERICAN   COLONIES,  AND   SOME 

EARLY  AMERICAN  SPECIMENS  149 


vi  CONTENTS 

XIX.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  "CLASSICAL"  TYPES.  BODONl 
AND  THE  DIDOTS 

I.  THE  "classical"   MOVEMENT  159 

n.  GIAMBATTISTA  BODONT  163 

m.  THE  DIDOT  FAMILY  176 

rV.   NINETEENTH    CENTURY    FRENCH    FOUNDRIES    AND 

SPECIMENS  181 

XX.  ENGLISH  types:    1800-1844  188 

XXI.  REVIVAL  OF  CASLON  AND  FELL  TYPES  198 

XXn.  ENGLISH   AND    AMERICAN    REVIVAL    OF  EARLY  TYPE- 
FORMS  AND  ITS  EFFECT  ON  CONTINENTAL  TYPES 

I.  ENGLAND  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  202 

II.  THE  CONTINENT  219 

XXIII.  THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  FOR  A  COMPOSING-ROOM  226 

XXIV.  INDUSTRIAL  CONDFTIONS  OF  THE  PAST  AND  THEIR 
RELATION  TO  THE  PRINTEr's  PROBLEM  TO-DAY 

I.  INTRODUCTORY  245 

ir.  EARLY  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  FRENCH  PRINTING 

INDUSTRY  247 

in.   SOME  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY  LABOUR  TROUBLES  253 

IV.   PRINTING  AT  PARIS  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  AND 

EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES  258 

V.  THE  CENSORSHIP  266 

VI.   RATE  OF   PRODUCTION,  HOURS  OF  LABOUR,  ETC.  270 

VII.   CONCLUSION  272 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  SPECIMENS  279 

INDEX  281 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOLUME   II 

The  filates,  excefiting  a  few  in  the  text  of  Volume  I,  either 
face  thefiage  designated,  or  are  groufied  immediately  after  it 

PAGE 

193.  Music  Types  employed  in  De  la  Hele's  Masses:  Planting 
Antiverp^  1578  5 
From  Rooses'  Christofihe  Plantin,  Antwerp,  1896 

194.  Roman  and  Italic  Types:  Plantin  Specimen^  Antwerp^ 

1567  7 

From  Rooses'  Christofihe  Plantin 

195.  Roman  and  Italic  Types:  Plantin  Specimen^  Antwerp^ 
1567  8 
From  Rooses'  Christofihe  Plantin 

196.  Roman^  Italic^  and  Cursive  Types:  Plantin  Specimen^ 
Antwerp^  1567  8 
From  Rooses'  Christofihe  Plantin 

197.  Canon  d"^ Espagne  from  Plantin  Office  10 

From  Sfiecimen  des   Caractires  employes  dans  V Imfiriinerie 
Plantinienne ,  Antwerfi,  1905 

198.  Calligraphic  Initials  from  Plantin  Office  10 
From.  Rooses'  Christofihe  Plantin 

199.  Page  of  Roman  Type  from  Biblia  Polyglotta:  Plantin^ 
Antwerp,  1572  10 
From  Drue kschrif ten  des  XV  bis  XVIII  Jahrhunderts 

200.  Text-page  and  Title  in  Plantings  early  manner,  Afit- 
zuerp,  1567  10 
From  Claude  Paradin^s  Symbola  Heroica 

201.  Page  from  Rariorum  Stirpium  Hispanix  Historia: 
Plantin,  Antwerp,  1576  12 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 


viii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

202.  Page  of  Rechten^  ende  Costumen  van  Antwerpen^  Plan- 
tin^  1582  12 
From  a  cofiy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

203.  Page  of  Italic  from  Rembert  Dodoeri's  Stirpium  His- 

toria:  Plantin  Office^  Antxverp^  1616  14 

From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

204.  Title-page^  Contents^  and  Text-page  of  one  of  Elzevir'' s 
Republics^  Leyden^  1627  16 

205.  Pages  of  Cicero:  Elzevir^  Ley den^  1642  18 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

206.  Page  of  Caesar  {octavo):  Elzevir^  Amsterdam^  1661  18 
Fro?n  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

207.  Sale-Specimen  of  Elzevir  Types:  Amsterdam^  1681  20 
From  facsimile  in  Willem''s  Les  Flzexner 

208.  Dutch  Type  used  in  Temple  des  Muses ^  A?nsterdam^ 

1733  34 

209.  Type  used  in  De  Stad Haarlem  en  haare  Geschiedenissen: 
Ensched^  and  Bosch^  Haarlem^  1765  34 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

210.  Script  Type:  EnschedPs  Proef  van  Letteren^  Haarlem^ 
1768  38 

211.  Fleischman'' s  Roman  Types  cut  in  1734, 1753,  and  1761: 
Enschede''s  Proef  van  Letteren^  Haarlem^  1768  38 

212.  Fleischman'' s  Black-letter :  Ensched^^s  Proef  van  Let- 
teren^  Haarlem^  1768  40 

213.  Seventeenth  Century  Civilitd:  EnschedP s  Proef  van  Let- 
teren^  Haarlem^  \7&%  40 

214.  Rosarfs  Caractere  de  Finance^  from  his  Epreuve^  Brus- 
sels {after  1760)  42 

215.  Rosart^s  Music  Types^  from  his  Epreuve^  Brussels  (after 
1760)  42 


ILLUSTRATIONS  ix 

216.  Rosarfs  Ornaments^  from  his  Epreuve^  Brussels  (after 
1760)  42 

217.  Dutch  Roman  Types:  Erhardt  Foundry  Specimen^  Leip- 

sic^  c.  1739  44 

From  Gessner^s  Buchdruckerkunst  und  Schriftgiessery 

218.  Dutch  Italic  Types:  Erhardt  Foundry  Specimen^  Leipsic^ 

c.  1739  44 

From  Gessner^s  Buchdruckerkunst  und  Schriftgiessery 

219.  Round  Spanish  Black-letter^  from  Lucas^  Arte  de  Escri- 

vir,  Madrid,  1577  47 

From  Strange's  Alphabets 

220.  Antique  Black-letter:  Specimen  of  La  Fabrica  del  Con- 
vento  de  S.  Joseph,  Barcelona,  1777  48 

221.  Title-page  of  Bordazar''s  Plantificacion,  Valencia,  \7S2        50 

222.  Texto,  Atanasia,  and  Letura  Espaciosafrom  Bordazar's 
Plantificacion,  Valencia,  1732  52 

223.  Page  of  Sallust:  Ibarra,  Madrid,  1772  56 

224.  Gothic  Types  in  De  las  Tablas  y  Escalera  Spiritual: 
Hagenbach,  Toledo,  1504  61 
From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

225.  Gothic  Type  used  in  Livy:  Coci,  Saragossa,  1520  62 
From  a  co/iy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

226.  Gothic  Type  used  in  Pulgar''s  El  Gran  Capitan:  Crom- 
burger,  Seville,  1527  62 
From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

227.  Roman  and  Gothic  Types  used  in  Complutensian  Poly- 
glot Bible:  Guillen  de  Brocar,  Alcala,  1514-17  64 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

228.  Greek  Type  used  in  Complutensian  Polyglot  Bible  {New 
Testament):  Guillen  de  Brocar,  Alcala,  1514-17  64 
From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Fhiblic  Library 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

229.  Roman  Type  used  in  Latin  translation  of  Pulgar's 
Chronicle:  Sancho  de  Nebrija^  Granada^  1545  66 
Fro7)i  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

230.  Roman  Tijpe  used  in  Gomez  de  Castro's  De  Rebus  Gestis 
a  Francisco  Ximenio^  Cisnerio :  Andres  de  Angulo^  Al- 
cala,  1569  68 

From  a  cofiy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

231.  Types  used  in  jirst  edition  of  Don  Quixote:  Juan  de  la 
Cuesta,  Madrid^  1605  68 

From  a  facsimile  edition  in  the  Boston  Fhiblic  Library 

232.  Opening  of  Solis''  Conquista  de  Mexico  {frst  edition): 
Villa-Diego,  Madrid,  1684  70 
From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

233.  Italic  used  for  Spanish  text  of  Sallust :  Ibarra,  Madrid, 

1772  72 

234.  Title-page  of  Academy  Edition  of  Don  ^tixote:  Ibarra, 
Madrid,  1780  74 
From  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

235.  Types  used  in  Academy  Edition  of  Don  ^lixote: 

Ibarra,  Madrid,  1780  74 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

236.  Type  used  in  Villegas''  Las  Eroticas:  A.  de  Sancha, 
Madrid,  1774  76 
From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

237.  Opening  of  Solis''  Conquista  de  3Iexico:  Sancha,  Madrid, 

1783  76 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

238.  Type  used  in  Bayer's  De  Numis  Hebraeo-Samaritanis: 
Monfort,  Valencia,  \7^\  78 
From  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

239.  Page  from  Triarte^s  Obras  Sueltas:  Mena,  Madrid, 

1774^  80 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

240.  Italic  in  Prefatory  Address:  Espinosa''s  Muestras  de  los 
Caracteres^  etc.^  Madrid^  1771  82 

241.  Texto  Gordo  {romati) :  Espinosd's  Muestras^  etc.^  Madrid^ 

1771  82 

242.  Texto  Gordo  (italic):  Espinosa''s  Muestras^  etc.^  Madrid^ 

1771  82 

243.  Italic  of  Letura  Chica:  Espinosa's  Muestras^  etc.^ 

Madrid,  1771  82 

244.  Entredos  {roman  and  italic):  Espinosd's  Muestras,  etc., 
Madrid,  1771  82 

245.  Roman  cut  by  Gil:  Specimen  Real  Biblioteca,  Madrid, 

1787  84 

246.  Italic  cut  by  Gil:  Specimen  Real  Biblioteca,  Madrid, 

1787  84 

247.  New  Italic  of  Texto  (shovjing  French  influence) :  Speci- 
men Real  Biblioteca,  Madrid,  1787  84 

248.  Peticano,  cut  by  Eudaldo  Pradell:  Muestras  de  la  Viuda 

i  Hijo  de  Pradell,  Madrid,  1793  84 

249.  Ornaments  from  Muestras,  etc.,  Pedro  If  em,  Madrid, 

1795  86 

250.  Roman  tending  to  ''^Modern  Face ^''  from  Muestras,  etc., 
Imprenta  Real,  Madrid,  1799  86 

251.  Italic  tending  to  ''''Modern  Face ^"^  from  Muestras,  etc., 
Imprenta  Real,  Madrid,  1799  86 

252.  Ornaments  frorn  Muestras,  etc.,  Imprenta  Real,  Madrid, 
1799  86 

253.  Ornaments  from  Muestras,  etc.,  Imprenta  Real,  Madrid, 
1799  86 

254.  Court  Hand,  Secretary,  and  Scriptorial  Types  from  Sale 
Catalogue  of  the  James  Foundry,  London,  1782  89 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

255.  Roman  Types  used  in  Horman's  Vulgana:  Pynson^ 
London,  1519  90 
Fro)n  a  cofiy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

256.  Roman  Type  used  in  JElfredi  Regis  Res  Gestae:  Day, 
London,  1574-  92 
From  a  co/iy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

257.  Italic  used  in  Mlfredi  Regis  Res  Gestae:  Day,  London, 

1574  92 

From  a  cofiy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

258.  Earliest  Eriglish  Specitnen-sheet :  Nicholas  Nicholls, 
London,  1665  95 
From  Reed's  History  of  Old  English  Letter  Foundries 

259.  Roman  and  Italic  given  by  Dr.  Fell  to  the  University 
Press,  Oxford  96 
From  Oxford  University  Press  Specimen,  1695 

260.  Black-letter  given  by  Dr.  Fell  to  the  University  Press, 
Oxford  96 
From  the  Oxford  University  Press  Specimen,  1695 

261.  Dutch  Types  used  in  England:  Watson  Specimen,  Edin- 
burgh, 1713  100 

262.  first  Broadside  Specimen  issued  by  William  Caslon, 

1734  102 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Library  of  the  American  Ty/ie  Founders 
Coinfiany,  Jersey  City 

263.  Roman  and  Italic:  William  Caslon  Ss?  Son's  Specimen, 

London,  1763  105 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, Worcester 

264.  Black-letter:  William  Caslon  £if  Soti^s  Specimen,  Lon- 
don, 1763  106 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, Worcester 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

265.  Ornaments :  William  Caslon  ^  Son's  Specimen^  London^ 

1763  108 

From  a  copy  in  the  Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, Worcester 

266.  Ornameyits:  William  Caslon  ^  SorCs  Specimen^  London^ 

1763  108 

From  a  copy  in  the  Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, Worcester 

267.  Page  of  Baskerville' s  Preface  to  Milton^  Birmingham^ 

1758  110 

From  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum 

268.  Title-page  of  Baskerville^ s  Virgil^  Birmingham^  \7 57         112 

269.  Baskerville'' s  Type  used  in  Virgil^  Birmingham^  1757  112 

270.  Baskerville'' s  Broadside  Specimen  (without  border)^  Bir- 
mingham, c.  1762  114 

271.  Types  from  Baskerville' s  bordered  Broadside  Specimen, 
Birmingham,  c.  1762  114 

From  a  co/iy  in  the  Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, Worcester 

272.  Advertisement  of  Sale  of  Baskerville'' s  Types,  Paris 

(after  1789)  114 

273.  Ornaments  used  by  Baskerville  116 
From  Straus  and  Dent's  John  Baskerville 

274.  Ornaments  used  by  Baskerville  116 
From  Straus  and  Denfs  John  Baskeruille 

275.  Portion  of  Wilson^ s  Broadside  Specimen,  Glasgow,  1783       118 

276.  Broadside  Specimen  of  Isaac  Moore  and  Co.,  Bristol, 

1766  118 

277.  Roman  and  Italic:  Fry  and  Steele's  Specimen,  London, 
1795  121 

278.  Ornaments:  Fry  and  Steele* s  Specimen,  London,  1795         122 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

279.  Transitional  Types:  Caslon  Specimen^  London^  1798  122 

280.  Ornaments :  Caslon  Specimen^  London.,  1798  122 

281.  Types  used  in  GoYver's  Confessio  Amantis:  Berthelet., 
London,  1532  126 
Froin  a  co/iy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

282.  Lettre  Batarde  used  in  Jirst  complete  edition  of  Chaucer: 
Godfrey,  London,  1532  126 
From  a  facsimile  edition  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

283.  Lettre  de  Forme  used  in  second  complete  edition  of 
Chaucer:  Pynson,  London,  1542  126 
From  a  cofiy  ifi  Harvard  College  Library 

284.  Pag-e  of  Cuniiingham' s  Cosmographicall  Glasse:  Day, 
London,  1559  126 
From  a  copy  in  the  John  Carter  Brawn  Library,  Providence 

285.  Page  of  Ascham's  Scholemaster,  showing  Roman,  Italic^ 

and  Black-letter :  Day,  London,  1571  128 

From  a  cofiy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

286.  Type  and  Ornaments  in  Tasso^s  Godfrey  of  Bulloigne: 
Hatfield,  London,  1 600  131 
From  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

287.  Page  of  Walton's  Lives:  Nexvcomb,  London,  1670  133 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

288.  Page  of  English-Saxon  Homily:  Bowyer,  London,  1709      135 

289.  Roman  used  in  Latin  edition  of  Caesar:   Tonson,  Lon- 
don, 1712  136 

290.  First  use  of  Caslon' s  Roman  Type,  in  Selden's  Opera: 
Bowyer,  London,  1726  138 
From  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum 

291.  Engraved  Text  of  Pine'' s  Horace,  London,  1733-37  138 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

292.  Type  of  Hanmer''s  Shakespeare:  University  Press^  Ox- 
ford, 1743-44  140 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

293.  Bastard  Title-page  of  Hanmer's  Shakespeare:  Univer- 
sity Press,  Oxford,  1743-44  140 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

294.  Page  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds^  Royal  Academy  Discourse: 
Cadell,  London,  1781  142 
From  a  copy  in  Hai~vard  College  Library 

295.  Type  of  folio  Pope:  Foidis,  Glasgow,  1785  142 
From  a  copy  in  Haruard  College  lAbrary 

296.  Title-page  of  Letters  of  Charlotte,  London,  179>&  144 
From  a  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

297.  William  Martinis  Type  used  in  the  '■''Boydell  Shak- 
speare''"' :  Bulmer,  London,  1792-1802  144 

From  a  cofiy  in  the  Boston  Public  Library 

298.  William  Martin's  Two-line  Small  Pica  Roman  and 
Italic  used  in  Poems  by  Goldsmith  and  Parnell:  Bul- 
mer, London,  1795  147 

299.  William  Martin's  Great  Primer  Roman  (Goldsmith  and 

Parnell)  and  Italic  {Somervile's  Chase) :  Bulmer,  Lon- 
don, 1795-96  148 

300.  William  Martin'' s  Pica  Roman  and  Italic  used  ifi  Som- 
ervile's  Chase:  Bulmer,  London,  1796  148 

301.  Bimiy  ^  Ronaldson^ s  Type  used  in  The  Columbiad,  Phil- 
adelphia, 1807  154 
From  a  copy  in  the  Boston  Athenxum 

302.  Black-letter:  Binny  £sf*  Ronaldson' s  Specimen,  Philadel- 
phia, 1812  156 

303.  Ornaments:  Binny  ^  Ronaldson' s  Specimen,  Philadel- 
phia, 1812  156 


xvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

304.  Title-page:  Isaiah  TTiomas's  Specimen^  Worcester^  1785      158 

From  a  cofiy  in  Harvard  College  Library 

305.  Greek  from  Iscrizioni  Esotici:  Bodoni^  Parma ^  1774  166 

306.  Roman  and  Italic  from  BodonVs  Specimen^  Parma ^  1788       168 

307.  (a)  Title  of  Lettre  a  De  Cubieres.  {b)  Text  of  Lettre  a 

De  Cubieres:  Bodoni,  Parma^  1785  168 

308.  Page  of  Signora  BodonVs  Discorso:  Manuale  Tipogra- 

fco,  Parma,  1818  170 

309.  Page  of  BodonV s  Prefazione :  Manuale  Tipografco, 
Parma,  1818  170 

310.  Specimen  of  BodonVs  Ducalein  three  -weights:  Manuale 
Tipografco,  Parma,  1818  170 

311.  Largest,  medium,  and  smallest  Roman  and  Italic  Capi- 
tals shown  in  BodonVs  Manuale  Tipografco,  Parma, 

1818  170 

312.  Ornaments:  BodonVs  Manuale  Tipografco,  Parma,  1818       170 

313.  Borders:  BodonVs  Manuale  Tipografco,  Parma,  1818          170 

314.  Roman  in  Epithalamia  Exoticis  Linguis  Reddita: 

Bodoni,  Parma,  1775  172 

315.  Italic  in  Epithalamia  Exoticis  Linguis  Reddita: 

Bodoni,  Par?7ia,  1775  172 

316.  Roman  and  Italic:  AmorettVs  Saggio  de''  Caratteri, 

Parma,  1811  175 

317.  Ornaments :  AmorettVs  Saggio  de''  Caratteri,  Parma, 

1811  176 

318.  Italic  in  P.  Didot  Vain^'^s  Specimen  des  Nouveaux 
Caracteres,  Paris,  1819  178 

319.  Roman  in  P.  DidoVs  Specimen,  etc.,  Paris,  1819  180 

320.  Borders:  Specimen  of  GilU  fls,  Paris,  1808  182 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

321.  Broadside  Specimen  of  GUU  jils^  Paris ^  c.  1808  182 

322.  Sheet  from  folio  Specimeji  of  Mold  jeune^  Paris^  1819  182 

323.  Broadside  Specimen  of  L.  Lcger^  Paris^  after  1806  184 

324.  Borders:  Leger''s  Specimen  des  Divers  Caracteres^  Paris  184 

325.  '"''Classic''^  Types:  Epreuves  de  Caracteres^  Fonderie 
Ginirale,  Paris,  1843  186 

326.  French  Old  Style  revived  by  De  Berny,  Paris,  in  1852         186 

327.  Comparative  Table  of  Types  used  by  the  French  National 

Printing  House  from  its  foundation  to  1825  186 

From  JVoticesur  les  Tyfies  Etrangers  du  Specimen  de  V Imfirim- 
erie  Royale,  Paris,  1847 

328.  Types  used  in  The  Sovereign :  Bensley,  London,  1800  188 

329.  Types  used  in  Poetry  of  the  Anti- Jacobin :  Bulmsr,  Lon- 
don, 1801  190 

330.  Types  used  in  Freylinghausen' s  Doctrine  of  the  Chris- 
tian Religion:  Stereotype  Office,  London,  1804  190 

331.  Page  of  Bibliographical  Decameron:  Bulmer,  London, 

1817  190 

From  a  cofiy  belonging  to  Mr.  C.  F.  Lauriat,  Jr. ,  Boston 

332.  Julian  Hibberfs  Uncial  Greek  Types  used  in  Book  of  the 
Orphic  Hymns,  London,  1827  192 

333.  Modern  Face  Types:  Alexander  Wilson  ^  Son''s  Speci- 
men, Glasgow,  1833  194 

334.  Pofnan  and  Italic:  W.  Thorowgood'' s  Specimen,  London, 
1824  196 

335.  Black-letter:  W.  Thoroxvgood'' s  Specimen,  London,  1824      196 

336.  Ornaments  to  accompany  '"'' Fat- Face''"'  Types:  Henry 
Caslon,  London,  1844  196 

337.  Ornaments  to  accompany  ''''Fat- Face''"'   Types:  Henry 
Caslon,  London,  1844  196 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

338.  Tifpes  and  Ornaments  of  Period  of  the  Caslon  Revival: 
Caslon  Son  and  Livermore  and  Henry  Caslon  Specimens^ 
London,  1844  196 

339.  Caslon  Type  as  revived  in  Lady  Willoughhy' s  Diary  by 
Whittingham,  London,  1844  198 

340.  Caslon  Type  used  in  '"''Pickering  edition''"'  of  The  Temple, 

by  George  Herbert:  Whittingham,  London,  1850  200 

341.  First  use  of  Fell  Types  by  the  Daniel  Press,  Oxford, 

1877  200 

From  A  N'e^  Sermon  of  the  JSTewest  Fashion 

342.  Fell  Types  as  used  in  Songs  by  Margaret  L.  Woods: 
Daniel  Press,  Oxford,  1896  200 

343.  Fell  Types  as  used  in  Trecentale  Bodleianum :  Oxford 
University  Press,  1913  200 

344.  Modernized  Old  Style  Fonts  as  used  in  Wotton^s  Ele- 
ments of  Architecture:  Chiswick  Press,  London,  1903         200 

345.  Type  used  in  The  Hobby  Horse:  Chiswick  Press,  Lon- 
don, 1890  200 

« 

346.  Morris's  Golden  Type:  Kelmscott  Press  206 

From  Poems  of  Williain  Shakesfieare,  1893 

347.  Morris'' s  Troy  Type:  Kelmscott  Press  208 
From  Morris's  J^ote  on  Kelmscott  Press,  1 898 

348.  Morris's  Chaucer  Type:  Kelmscott  Press  208 
From  Morris's  Mote  on  Kelmscott  Press,  1898 

349.  The  Vale  Fount:  Vale  Press  210 
From  Bibliografihy  of  the  Vale  Press,  1904 

350.  The  Avon  Fount:  Vale  Press  210 
From  Bibliografihy  of  the  Vale  Press,  1904 

351.  The  King'^s  Fount:  Vale  Press  210 
From  Bibliografihy  of  the  Vale  Press,  1904 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xix 

352.  Doves  Type:  Doves  Press  212 

From  Catalogue  Raisonne  of  Doves  Press  Books,  1 908 

35^.  Type  used  by  the  Ashendene  Press  214 

From  Horace's  Carmina  Alcaica,  1903 

354.  Brook  Type:  Eragny  Press  214 

From  Brief  Account  of  Eragny  Press,  1903 

S55.  Herbert  Home's  Montallegro^  Florence^  and  Riccardi 

Types  216 

356.  Sehvyn  Image's  Greek  Type  216 

From  JVenv  Testament  in  Greek,  London,  1895 

Z5T.  Proctor'' s  ^^  Otter''  Greek  Type  216 

From  Oresteia  of  JEjschylus :  Chiswick  Fh-ess,  London,  1904 

358.  Britce  Rogers'  Montaigne  Type  218 
From  The  Banquet  of  Plato :  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  1908 

359.  Bnice  Rogers'  Centaur  Type  218 
From  Maurice  de  Gueri7i's  Centaur,  Montague  Press,  1915 

360.  Bertram  Grosvenor  Goodhue's  Merrymount  Type  218 

361.  '"'' Inkunabula"  type^  as  used  in  Risorgimento  Grajico: 
Bertieri  and  Fanzetti,  Milan^  1921  222 

362.  Distel  Type:  ZUverdistel  Press^  The  Hague^  1918  222 

363.  Zilver  Type:  ZUverdistel  Press,  The  Hague,  1915  222 

364.  French  Lettre  Batarde,  Paris,  1890  222 

From  reproduction  of  Simon  Fostre's  Heures  a  /'  Usage  de 
Rome 

365.  Le  Cochin:  G.  Peignot  £s?  Fils,  Paris,  1914  224 

366.  Arabic  Figures,  Non-Ranging  and  Ranging,  with 
Arabic  Figures  employed  by  Simon  de  Colines  in  1536  230 

367.  Examples  of  Transitional  Types  243 


PRINTING  TYPES 
THEIR  HISTORY,  FORMS,  AND  USE 


PRINTING  TYPES 
CHAPTER  kv 

TYPES  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS:   I5OO-I8OO 

THOUGH  Netherlands  printing  never  equalled 
the  exquisite  work  of  the  best  French  printers 
between  1500  and  1550,  by  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  primacy  in  printing  had  begun  to 
pass  from  France  to  Holland.  This  was  chiefly  because  the 
Roman  Church,  and  especially  the  theologians  of  the  Sor- 
bonne,  were  discouraging  French  scholarship,  forbidding 
Hebrew  studies,  fearing  the  study  of  Greek,  and,  by  thus 
impeding  scholarship,  impeding  the  career  of  that  fine 
figure,  the  French  scholar-printer.  The  palm  for  printing 
passed  to  Holland  also,  largely  because  of  two  great  names; 
and  the  books  one  naturally  first  thinks  of  in  considering 
the  Netherlands  press  are  the  ample  sixteenth  century  vol- 
umes by  Christophe  Plan  tin,  and  the  "tight,"  business-like 
little  editions  printed  by  various  Elzevirs  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  We  first  consider  the  work  of  these  two  presses, 
and  then  some  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  cen- 
tury books  by  other  Netherlands  printers. 


PLANTIN  was  a  Frenchman.  He  was  born  at  Saint 
Avertin,  near  the  city  of  Tours,  about  the  year  1520, 
and  after  various  wanderings  in  his  own  country  he  came 
to  Antwerp,  where  he  engaged  in  book-binding  and  work- 
ing in  leather.  Incapacitated  through  an  accident  from  con- 
tinuing his  trade,  he  became  a  printer — a  77ietierw\th  which 
he  was  already  familiar.  The  books  which  he  printed  show 


4  PRINTING  TYPES 

his  Gallic  training  and  taste.  Partly  through  the  political 
situation  of  the  Netherlands — still  under  Spanish  rule — 
and  partly  through  his  eminence  as  a  scholarly  typographer, 
he  came  to  have  extended  relations  with  many  notable 
men.  He  began  to  print  at  Antwerp  in  1555,  and  estab- 
lished a  foundry  in  connection  with  his  press  in  1563, 
where  a  certain  Sabon  —  whose  name  was  given  to  a  size  of 
German  type — was  employed.  At  first  Plantin  apparently 
purchased  current  and  local  material ;  later  he  began  to 
import  matrices  of  foreign  fonts  or  to  have  his  types  cut 
for  him.  Though  he  made  Antwerp  a  centre  of  printing, 
this  printing  was  characteristic  not  so  much  of  the  Nether- 
lands as  of  France.  This  was  not  solely  because  Plantin 
was  a  Frenchman,  but  because  he  so  constantly  procured 
and  used  French  products.  Frangois  Guyot  of  Antwerp, 
a  type-cutter  and  founder,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest  ^oi/r- 
nisseurs  to  the  Plantin  press,  was  a  Frenchman  of  Parisian 
origin.  With  Robert  Granjon  of  Lyons — who  for  a  time 
lived  at  Antwerp — Plantin  had  continuous  dealings.  San- 
lecque  supplied  some  of  Plantings  fonts ;  at  the  Garamond 
sale  he  acquired  certain  important  "strikes"  and  types ;  and 
Guillaume  Le  Be  I  and  Hautin  supplied  part  of  his  equip- 
ment. Some  delightful  roman  and  italic  fonts  came,  appar- 
ently, from  the  office  of  Simon  de  Colines.  Granjon  supplied 
some  of  Plantin's  civiliie^  and  also  cut  the  Greek  and  Syr- 
iac  type  for  his  Polyglot  Bible  —  the  Hebrew  being  from 
Le  Be.  This  famous  Polyglot  in  eight  volumes  (printed  by 
Plantin  under  the  patronage  of  Philip  II  of  Spain,  and 
edited  by  Benito  Arias  Montano,  Philip's  chaplain)  was 
his  masterpiece  and  also  almost  his  ruin.  "Learning  hath 
gained  most  by  those  books  by  which  the  Printers  have 
lost,"  says  Thomas  Fuller  in  his  Holy  State.  "Christopher 
Plantine  \^sic\  by  printing  of  his  curious  interlineary  Bible 


1 

^ 

(U 

? 

r\ 

^'- — ^ 

r" 

00 

t^ 

'O 

T-H 

vH 

•?i. 

(D 

C 

"~^ 

<U 

r^ 

<U 

•fcj 

R 

Q 

n 

", 

>-. 

% 

^ 

1 

SO 

^> 

tS 

c 
c2 


1^ 


SVPERIVS- 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800  5 

in  Anwerp  [^sic]  through  the  unreasonable  exactions  of  the 
King's  officers,  sunk  and  almost  ruined  his  estate."  The 
Spanish  Crown  later  granted  the  Plantin  press  special  privi- 
leges for  printing  service-books  for  the  Spanish  Church. 
This  was  a  monopoly  retained  for  a  long  time  by  Plantin's 
descendants,  and  (as  we  shall  see)  proved  an  obstacle  to  the 
progress  of  liturgical  printing  in  Spain.  Between  1568  and 
1570,  Plantin  bought  the  Netherlands  "rights"  of  the  new 
Breviary  of  Pius  V;  for  the  new  Missal  he  purchased  a 
monopoly  for  the  Netherlands,  Hungary,  and  portions  of 
Germany.  These  privileges  assured  the  press  of  a  staple 
product  which  was  a  veritable  gold  mine  to  him  and  his 
descendants. 

Plantin,  after  the  death  of  Guyot  and  the  cessation  of 
his  relations  with  Granjon,  appears  to  have  taken  up  with 
a  Ghent  type-founder,  Henric  van  der  Keere  the  younger, 
or,  as  he  preferred  to  call  himself,  Henri  du  Tour;  and 
between  the  years  1570  and  1580  Plantin's  own  foundry 
apparently  was  closed  —  Du  Tour  supplying  everything. 
He,  too,  seems  to  have  been  of  French  origin — indeed,  Four- 
nier  speaks  of  him  as  living  at  Paris.  The  music  fonts  in 
Plantin's  office  were  of  remarkable  magnificence,  and  some 
of  his  books  of  Masses,  especially  those  by  Georges  de  la 
Hele,  are  strikingly  handsome  (Jig.  193).  Of  these  music 
types  some  of  the  best  were  cut  by  Du  Tour.  In  1580,  the 
year  of  Du  Tour's  death,  he  was,  according  to  Rooses,^  the 
only  type-founder  in  the  country.  There  were  also  Nether- 
lands founders  from  whom  Plantin  purchased  types,  whose 
names  have  come  down  to  us,  but  the  greater  part  of  his 
equipment  was  by  French  hands. 

The  following  letter  to  Moretus,  written  from  Paris,  De- 

'  Max  Rooses,  Christofihe  Plantin,  Im/irimeur  Jlnversois,  2^"*^  Edition.  Ant- 
werp, 1896. 


6  PRINTING  TYPES 

cember  12, 1598,  tells  something  of  the  relations  between 
Garamond  and  Plantin,  as  well  as  Plantin's  dealings  with 
Guillaume  Le  Be  I,  whose  son,  Guillaume  Le  Be  II,  writes 
it. 

"I  have  long  had  a  great  desire  to  write  you,  understand- 
ing you  to  be  son-in-law  of  the  late  M.  Plantin  (whom  may 
God  absolve),  who  during  his  lifetime  was  a  great  friend 
of  my  late  father's,  which  has  caused  me,  through  the 
kindness  with  which  your  nephew,  M.  de  Varennes,  has 
addressed  me,  to  take  up  my  pen,  in  order  that  thereby  I 
may  make  overtures  toward  renewing  between  us  the  ac- 
quaintance which  existed  between  our  fathers — which  is 
the  first  reason  moving  me  to  write ;  the  second  being,  that 
as  I  know  you  have  the  matrices  and  punches  which  M. 
Plantin  had  and  likewise  punches  of  the  petit  iexte  cut  by 
Garamond,  I  would  pray  and  beg  you  to  accommodate  me 
with  a  set  of  these  matrices  (without  justifying  them,  as 
long  as  they  are  struck  on  copper  of  good  quality  and  are 
deeply  sunk),  and  as  a  'trade.'  I  have  Garamond's  other 
punches  which  my  late  father  purchased  from  Garamond's 
widow,  of  which  I  will  accommodate  you  with  any,  in  even 
exchange,  such  as  \he  parangon  romam^  the  gros  romain^  the 
canon  and  the  petit  romain.  It  was  my  late  father  who  sold 
M.  Plantin  the  said  punches  o^  petit  texte  and  those  of  the 
Saint-Aiigiistin  which  I  know  you  have,  for  my  father 
bought  all  these  from  Garamond,  and  then,  at  the  desire 
of  Monsieur  your  father,  he  sold  him  these  two  kinds, 
although  my  father  retained  for  himself  a  set  of  matrices 
of  each.  But  in  selling  a  large  assortment  to  a  merchant, 
he  had  to  dispose  of  his  petit  texte  because  this  customer 
wanted  so  much  to  have  it ;  and  that  is  why,  not  possess- 
ing it,  I  desire  to  secure  it.  I  have  also  several  fine  fonts  of 
Hebrew  letters — for  text  as  well  as  notes  —  with  which 


Quifquis  eft,  qui  moderatione  & 
conftantiapolleat,  quietus  animoeft^ 
fibiqiie  ipfeplacatus^vt  neque  tabefcat 
moleftiis,  neque  frangatur  timore,  nee 
ritienterquidexpe6lans,ardeatdcfide- 


IIL   TVSCVL. 

Sapienti  nihil  poteft  videri  magnum  in  rebus 
liumanis,  cui  ^ternitas  omnis,  totiusquemundi 
nota  fit  magnitude .  Nam  quid  aut  in  ftudiis  hu- 
manis ,  aut  in  tarn  exigua  vitx  breuitate  magnum 
fapienti  videri  poteft,  qui-  Temper  animo  fie  excu- 
bat,  vt  ei  nihil  improuifiim  accidere  pofsit,  nihil 


Saptentia  nihil  cfl  melim.      i.  de  natura.  Deorum^, 
oAd  re7?jpuhltcam-plurima  veniuTpL>  commoda^fimo^ 
deratrix  omnium  rerumpmflo  eftfapientia:  hincadipfbs 
qui  e am^  adept i  funtj  y  lam  y  honor  ^  di^nitas  conjluit* 
i.de^Inuenf. 

194.  Roman  and  Italic  Types:  Plantin  Specimen^  Antwerp^  1567 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800  7 

to  print  rabbinical  commentaries,  as  is  done  in  the  great 
Bible  printed  at  Venice ;  I  think  you  have  several  kinds 
of  Hebrew  letters,  for  my  father  cut  them  and  sold  them 
to  M.  Plantin,  your  father.  If  it  is  agreeable  to  you  to  ac- 
commodate me  with  a  set  of  matrices  of  the  aforesaid  petit 
texte  of  Garamond's  on  the  above  named  conditions,  I  beg 
you  to  send  me  a  reply.  I  am  living  at  rue  Saint  Jehan 
de  Beauvais,  au  clos  Bnineau^  and  am  a  dealer  in  paper, 
and  a  master  type-founder.  By  doing  this  you  will  impel  me 
with  all  my  heart  to  render  you  service  wherever  it  may 
please  you  to  command  it ;  praying  God  that  He  may  pre- 
serve you,  and  remaining.  Sir,  your  servant  and  friend, 

GuiLLAUME  Le  Be. 
"I  send  you  an  impression  of  the  letter  I  call  petit  texte^ 
which  I  wish  to  procure." 

Some  of  Plantin's  fonts  are  shown  in  his  Specimen  of 
1567.  This  Index,  sive  Specimen  Characterum  Christophori 
Plantini  showed  forty-one  specimens  —  seven  Hebrew,  six 
Greek,  twelve  roman,  ten  italic,  three  cursive,  and  three 
gothic  types.  Rooses  shows  but  six  roman,  four  italic,  and 
three  cursive  fonts.^  I  hesitate  to  give  these  types  attribu- 
tions, though  the  larger  sizes  of  roman  and  italic  appear 
very  French  in  style  (_^^.  194).  Those  headed  De  Claris  Orat 
and  Pro  Sestio  appear  to  be  from  the  office  of  De  Colines 
(/^.  195). 

The  cursives  headed  Pro  Flacco  and  /  Offic.  are  the 
work  of  Granjon,  whom  Plantin  frequently  employed  i^fig' 
196).  The  cursive  type  headed  III  De  Legib.  is  attributed 
to  another  type-cutter.  Various  forms  of  cursive  type  are 
displayed  in  Plantin's  Polyglot  Bible,^  and  the  Plantin  office 

Rooses'  Plantin,  after  page  232.  His  reproduction,  from  which  our  plates 
are  taken,  is  slightly  reduced. 
^ Drue kschrif ten,  pis.  8  and  30. 


8  PRINTING  TYPES 

at  Leyden  possessed  fine  fonts  of  it.^  A  peculiarity  of  all 
these  fonts  is  that  lower-case  letters  to  be  used  in  the  mid- 
dle of  a  word  often  differ  entirely  from  those  to  be  employed 
as  final  letters. 

But  the  Dutch  vernacular  types,  which  reproduced  typo- 
graphically writing  then  current  in  the  Netherlands, — the 
only  "national"  character  given  by  the  Low  Countries  to 
typography, — we  owe  to  Ameet  Ta vernier  and  Henric  van 
der  Keere.  Tavernier,  who,  no  doubt,  had  seen  Granjon's 
types,  produced  a  similar  character  in  Flemish  style  about 
1559,  which,  because  it  was  native,  and  not  (like  Granjon's) 
foreign,  had  a  great  success,  and  was  used  by  Plantin. 
Van  der  ^eere  (already  mentioned  as  supplying  Plantin 
with  material)  also  made  an  essay  of  a  letter  Jagon  d''ecri- 
ture  about  1575;  his  font  comprising  110  characters.  Spe- 
cimens of  these  types  exist  in  the  Enschede  collection.^ 
Though  not  germane  to  our  investigation,  they  are  of  con- 
siderable interest.^ 

Another  "document"  on  Plantin's  types  is  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Plantin-Moretus  Museum  entitled  Specimen 
des  Caracteres  employes  dans  V Imprimerie  Plantinienne,  is- 
sued in  1905.  Forty-eight  characters  used  by  Plantin  are 
displayed,  although  the  basis  on  which  the  selection  was 
made  is  not  indicated.  The  monumental  canon  d''Espagne — 
a  large,  round  gothic  letter  intended  for  liturgical  books, 
and,  I  believe,  cut  for  a  Spanish  Antiphonary  ordered  by 
the  King  of  Spain  but  never  printed  —  is  a  very  good  ex- 

'  Enschede's  Fonderies  de  Caracteres  et  leur  Materiel  dans  les  Paya-Bas, 
du  XFe  au  XIXe  Steele,  pp.  44-47. 
'  Ibid.,  pp.  40,  41,  47,  48,  49. 

^  For  a  valuable  survey  of  these  types  see  Les  Caracteres  de  Civilite  de  Rob- 
ert Granjon  et  les  Iin/irimeurs  Flamands ,  Antwerp,  1921,  by  Maurits  Sabbe 
(of  the  Musee  Plantin)  and  Marius  Audin.  It  contains  twelve  reproductions 
of  civilite  fonts  by  Granjon,  Tavernier,  etc. 


V.    TVSCyL. 

O  V  IT  AE  Philofophia  dux  ,  o  virtu- 
tls indagatrix ,  cxpukrixque  vitiorum !  qui 
ronmodonos,fcciomnino  vita  hominum 
finctccflcpotuifiet?Tu  vrbespcperiftijtu 
difsipatos  homines  in  focieratcm  vitaecon- 
uocafti .  Tu  eos  inter  fe  primo  dortiiciliis, 
deindcconiugiisj  cum  litterarum  &vocum 
communione  iunxifti.  Tu  inuehtrixlegum, 
tu  magiftra  morum  &  difcipiinaifuifti.  Tu 
vit^Etranquillitatemlargitanbbiscs,  &ter- 
ioiem  mortisfuftulifti. 

Thales  Mjleiius,vt  obiurgatorcs  fuos  c6- 
wincerer,  oftendcretque  Phllofophum,  fi  ci 
commodum  eflec ,  pecuniam  facerepofle, 
omnemoleam  antequam  florerc  ccepiffet, 
in  agro  Mile-fio  cocmifle  dicitur .  Animad- 
uerterat  fortafle  quadam  fcientia  olcarum 
vbcrtatem  fore.         i .  de  Dmnat. 

Qui  ceteris  rebus  pro  nihilo  habitis  re- 
rum  naturamftudiofeincuentur,&fapien- 
tia: ftudiofi  &  Philofophi  habentur.  <:.TKfc. 

Philofophi,virtutis  magillri.    i.Tufml. 


I 


T.    TVSCVL. 

N  O  N  f X  fingtilii  'vociliti  Philofophi  jfie^audi 
fmt  ,fed  ex^erpeutitate  0'  cotijlautia  :  raq^jpeHm 
oponet,  non  wrbti. 

ln?hi!ofophia  res f^eHantur ,  nowverha  pendm" 
iHY.     Orac.  adBnitum. 

A  ?hilofopho,ft/idferat  eloquemiam^mnajficrmr: 

ft  non  hiibeat,non  admoditm  deftdcro .     i  .Tufcul. 

Sunt  qni  in  rebus  contrariis  pamm  fibi  consent, 

vokptatemfeHeiipme  contemnaut,  in  dolore  fnit  mol- 

liwes,glitiam  mgltgat,fra)igtintnriHfarnnt.  i.Offic 

YtfioYammaiicimpYojcfftufeqiiij^iam. 
z.TulcuI.  InSimil.io. 

Qupmfquifque FhilofophorHtn ittnenitin,  qmfn lu 
moram,  itaanimo  dcviia  conftmits  ^/vt  ratio  pofiu- 
lat^qni  difciplinam  non  ojlemationemfdemi^yfed  U- 
gtm  liupuset ,  qiii^  ohemperet  ipfefibi ,  ac  decrctii 
fnispareat?  Vidcre  licet  alios  taniakmtAtec^iaha- 
tioneyiisvifiierii  non  didicijfe  melius:  almpeamu  fw- 
pidosynon  nuhsgloru  ^mnltoi  hhidimm  feruoii'vt  cum 
eorntn  vita  mirahilncr  p»gnet  i»wfjo ,  quod  quidem  ejl 
tHrpifimtm.  i.  Tufcul. 
hiagifxrWmutiif  Fhilofophi.-     2.  Tufcul. 


»E     CLARIS    ORAT. 

Pacts  eft  comcs,otiiquc  fociaj&  iam  bene 
ConftitutE  ciuitatisquafi  alumna  qua:dam  clo-- 
qiientia. 

Nemo  eft  qui  ncfciar  initio  genus  humanum 
inmontibus  ac  filuis  di/Tipatum,  prudcntium 
confiliiscompulfumr&dilcrtorunnoraticncdc- 
tinitu,  fc  oppidjs.tna nibufq;  fcpfillc.   i .  de  Orat. 

Fuit  quoddam  tcmpus,  cum  in  agris  homines 
paflim  bcftiarum  more  vagabantur,  &  vidu  fcri- 
110  fibi  vitam  propagabant;  ncc  ratjone  animi 
CjUidquani ,  fed  pieracjuc  viribus  corporis  admi- 
niftrabant.  Nemo  Icgitimas  vidcrat  nuptias,  ne- 
mo ccrcosinfpcxerat  libcros.Quo  tempore  qui- 
dam  niagnus  videlicet  vir  &c  (apicns  ,  difpcrfos 
Lomincsinagris,&in  locisfiluefiribusabditos, 
latione  quadam  compulit  in  vnura  Iocu,&  con  - 
gregauit,  &  eos  ex  fcris  &  immanibus  mites  rcd- 
didit,&  raanfuetos.        jJelnutnt. 

Du^r  funt  artes  qoij  polTunt  locarc  homines  in 
amphdlino  gradu  dignitatis:  vnainipcratorisjal- 
tcraoiatorisboni .  ab  hocenim  pacis  ornamen- 
la  rctincntur,  abiUobcljiipericularepelluntur. 
PtoAUtrtpa, 


V  RO      6£STI  O. 

Hoc  tempore  cum  homines  nondum  ncquenatstrum 

U,nequ^  111/ !  i  imb  defcnpto,fufi  per  agros,  at  que  d'JJierfi 
yagarcntitr,tAntum^€  hulaent , quantum  manu  ac  yi' 
rihmperctdemac  yutmra  auteripere,  aut  retintrt  po» 
tuiffent:  cxthtiuni  yiri  ys'rtute  f^conjilioprefianti^q-n 
dtffipatos  >num  in  locum  chn^e^artintf  eosjue  exfcrsct- 
tatetUa  ad  iujlitiam  aique  manfuetudintm  tranfiule- 
runt ,  ^  inuento  diuino  «^  hstmano  iure  eoi  masnibvu 
fepferUHt, 

Cram  efi  fii'  pUita  dignitatUdkendificultM^rju* 
plurimas  grat'nUtfirmi(lhnAs  amicitut,  maxima fapt 
fiudiapspent.     Pro  Murana. 

Y.loquentia  principibtn  maxtme  ornamento  tjl. 
4.deFinib. 

Eloquentiagrandi-  efl  rerh'y,  fapienifententiit^^e- 
nere  tote  ^rauii :  rrMnm  extrema  non  accejjit  operibtu 
eitts:pT£(Ure  iiichcata  tnulta,  pirfeHA  ncopltiite, 
De  Claris  Orat. 

Ntliileji  eloqucni'ta  lattdahiliut  yelpT'tftanttm^  ytl 
admirAHone  audtent-i4W,yelJj!e  nsdi'^entiumyyelevrHm 
quijej'eiifrjunt-/r<tta.      z-OiViC. 

yc  hominii  dccu-  efl  tn^eniumjfe ingtni)  lumen ,  efi 
eloqucntia,     Dc  Claris  Orat. 


195.  Roman  and  Italic  Types:  Plantin  Specimen^  Antwerp^  1567  {reduced) 


».    OVTiC. 

tM  rebut  RiigntitOiemorii4uedigni<,ron^Ii].piimum,JFiiiiIe4Aa 
fOflc.ieucfltus  rpcdaniur,<|Uo(1  Jukiics, x^juuni  fic,:ininiquufp.. 

Non  ilcbemus <juiJqu>m  igcre ,  ctiiuJ no"  foGimus  ciudm  probi- 
bilnTirr<Jdcrc.        t.Offr. 

Ad  temgfrcnttjtnqm.iccedif,  Mueit,  ne  id  n.udo<on(rdtrtt,  I'tj-n 
illjres  lionen^  rit.fcdcci'^m  vc  hnbc.tc  cf6c(Ciu1i  taniU.i(cin:in  ')uoi]'fb 
conlidcr.indnmcftilli,  nc  aiit  (cmcredt'cerft  propeer  igniiium,  3uc 
nimisconAdai  propter  ciipiduaicm.  tn  omnibus  amcninc^otus  prills 
(jujimj^rirdiire,  jdhibeiiJjed  pfTpnrfliio  dil'fCn?.        i.Offt. 

Stiuni  qiitr(|uf  nolcit  iiigdiinm,  acrcaique  fc.^  vitionjm,  Sc  bono- 
ftimruornni  iiuliccmpr^bcitxefccnicipliit  quini  nos  vidcanturbabC' 
teprudtnii7',ncve  Ulirio  videJt  in  rccni,quo<inon  videaifj^piens  in  vt- 
'H.       l.Offi.: 

Nun  eft  incomtnodum  ex  Mil's  iudicire  :  vt  (iqvid  dcde<Mt>n>lii«, 
viKniu<&  ipri:flt(niin  ncTi io  quo  modo,  vtmagii  in  aliiscemimuSt 
fuiniinnot>ilinctip(l<,(i>iuiddelinquinir.    i.  Of/ic. 

Vtfi&otn,  Si  ij'\ai  fi^n^  I'abricaniur.     I.  Offi.it  SmUH.  jo. 


f.   o  r  f  I  c. 

ATi  td tV^nii^, <i»» iliiViuiitmtel dffniMi^iilMitt Um'wit i,Dii Mt'. 

Nittnftiii  iuA'icdtt  tjtitJfMltmliim,  atn  fddttidiamtfijtd  fftt  itidn 
tfcrirt  ia<o  <iut4ftiiiJirtirm.      l.dcFinib. 

Utliui  KMi/nr  «,  >/Kr  tfftittnKi.lft,>ii.im  fmfat  lufntAilaMpti. 
Ikf.     i.de  Inticni. 

ytimtdt)ntiiKtTr,<^iiylliti>nfri>timiiillrtitt.      I.  dclniitnt. 

_  f.icriiilu$  ii  lui  fr^fcflPtrpfAj^riir,  (r  I'BWn  iil'l'riJl:r,smnil>0t fgt- 
liinr  ttnmtiiiiti  rr^iitr,  t^uin  it  ifnipMiit  &■  iciilthiit  tiictiti  4>ni- 
niprstvr.     |.de  limcnt. 

Htrfl,nm<]i.tfjtiniiii,yi  tntfBd  frniii  pi.iJr'rmtt ,  iymi  itttjmij 
ffui(fit':c,mi.l,am  ilbm  [•ttiiiilijji:  ttifiiui,  Bihitfiiifp  Aittmn, 
l>rn  C.Rjbir.I'ofllium.      ' 

Sidum  litmifitm  huvtitivm » ftd  9iUm  Mmfii^,!*  '.•vm  -tft^vn  itnftU  .'jr 
ranidr^nc'i  ix  vltauit  d  f/inpimt ^tl/ntiplnf.  liV.?  .^■''1  Attic, E;ift.i«« 


PRO       FLACCO. 
<G)  (mi{iK{i€£t<f^  con^itiona-  ^a^minijivi'iL^  (t  viftfii?  £t(<-  cites  ^ 

ct  ^  €£afint<<-  (c  (mtf^mii- :  tf\utUt(i-  |ctitvitc  tfi  ^ait^tKtnfc,  iTilJt'- 
vadtc  lion  a^(fKCaBi<iJ ,  <c  ^aKCtm piaii)  ^'tm£ucf}i;^,  pCattnit ^^v~ 

<\uciitti-  cffofic-  atttn^tnt  ita- ^t^tttui'ii'  ^tncinta-i^}  ^offtfrioi)^<Lj 


iii.de    legid. 

^fnV  atiCn  fifMt*  tpCrnicitux  aux  Qitex,: 
'^ict^tantcontv<iirtiiu^\«i(tsttaux'^«ix, 
rtcn  «ioin^  ^tuif  4t-  fiuntrtm,  aut  fairC  tjucf- 

'^<ff-^oixfc  tknntnt  («)>     CntrC ft» 

^Mt^,  9eU  rtu't'f /rtUt  «}UC  cffu^  <JM»  ft*  ^ott- 
©rott  «ttC«9rC  Toit  •miu|t"tm(nt  f  «iv  ,   t>t~ 


I .      O  F  F  I  C. 

G  <!•'''  ^Nf»j    T««rt<  «3  f»itHrwi'»f<»»«lioii»^— , 


196.  Roman^  Italic^  and  Cursive  Types:  Plantin  Specimen^  Antxverp^  1567 

{reduced) 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800  9 

ample  of  the  black-letter  peculiar  to  Spain  at  that  period 
{Jig.  197).  Certain  fonts  similar  to  it  were  used  in  Italy. 
The  moyen  canon  romain  and  its  italic  appear  to  me  French, 
as  does  the  petit  canon  romain  with  its  italic ;  but  the  moyen 
canon  Jiamand  is  a  characteristic  Netherlands  black-letter. 
The  roman  and  italic  types  are,  of  course,  old  style,  most 
of  them  heavy  in  cut.  The  ascendonica  cursive  is  an  inter- 
esting, lively  italic  in  w^hich  two  forms  of  double  s  should 
be  noted,  as  well  as  the  lower-case  g's,  the  ligatured  sp,  the 
ampersand,  and  the  capital  Q — characters  closely  allied  to 
handwriting.  On  the  other  hand,  the  gros  texte  italique,  the 
augustin  ita /i g ue (ist),  and  the  cicero  italique  remind  one  (in 
general  grayness  of  effect  when  printed)  of  the  light  italic 
which  came  into  use  in  France  in  the  late  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. In  the  smaller  types  of  this  specimen  there  seem  to 
be  two  sorts  of  fonts :  (l)  traditional  old  style  with  its  inter- 
esting italic,  and  (2)  lighter  roman  and  italic,  more  even 
in  cut,  more  monotonous  in  colour,  and  much  less  attrac- 
tive. The  beautiful  type  from  the  De  Colines  office,  called 
Colineus  romain  and  Colineus  italique^  I  have  spoken  of.  The 
type-specimen  ends  with  a  page  each  of  Greek  and  He- 
brew— one  of  the  latter  from  De  Colines'  office  —  and  then 
follow  music  types  and  borders,  some  of  which  are  familiar. 
A  vast  quantity  of  ornamental  alphabets,  many  of  which 
are  of  great  magnificence,  do  not  come  properly  under  our 
survey.  Two  classes  of  these,  however,  may  be  noted  — 
the  calligraphic  letters  {Jig.  198),  probably  derived  from 
the  ornamental  lettering  of  contemporary  writing-masters, 
meant  to  be  used  with  civilite  types,  or  with  music ;  and 
the  class  of  alphabet  represented  by  the  famous  historiated 
letters  numbered  6  and  14,  from  the  first  of  which  a  letter 
(reduced)  is  shown  in  the  plate  from  De  la  Hele's  Mass 
{Jig.  193). 


10  PRINTING  TYPES 

How  such  types  look  in  pages  may  be  seen  by  consult- 
ing Plantin's  books — particularly  the  monumental  Polyglot 
Bible  (1572),  the  prefatory  matter  to  the  first  volume  being 
a  magnificent  display  of  his  noble  fonts  {Jig.  199).  This 
work  is  generally  to  be  found  in  any  large  library.  For  those 
who  desire  an  easy  ascent  to  Parnassus  (though  they  will 
not  get  very  far  up  the  mountain),  the  plates  of  text-pages  in 
Rooses'  life  of  Plantin  will  be  found  convenient ;  or,  better 
still,  the  few  but  telling  facsimiles  in  Druckschriften  des  XF 
bis  XFIII  Jahrhunderts}  But  Plantin's  books  themselves 
are  the  only  satisfactory  exhibition  of  his  types. 

Plantin's  earlier  printing  is  more  delicate  than  his  later 
work.  A  good  example  of  his  first  manner  is  an  "emblem 
book  "  published  in  1567 — an  edition  of  Claude  Paradin's 
Symhola  Heroica^  translated  from  French  into  Latin,  and 
printed  in  32mo  form.  The  text  of  this  delightful  little  book 
is  set  in  a  delicate  italic  which  harmonizes  agreeably  with 
the  spirited  rendering  of  the  designs.  Displayed  lines,  em- 
ployed in  connection  with  the  italic  text,  are,  however,  set 
in  reman,  and  the  prefatory  matter  is  almost  entirely  printed 
in  it  {Jig.  200).  Very  reserved  in  style,  the  book  reminds 
one  of  editions  from  the  Lyons  press.  A  12mo  herbal,  Ra- 
riorum  Stirpium  Hispanix  Historia,  by  Charles  de  I'Ecluse 
(Clusius),  printed  by  Plantin  in  1576, —  also  set  almost  en- 
tirely in  italic, — resembles  French  or  Italian  work.  Sim- 
ple in  arrangement,  and  with  charming  woodcuts  of  plants, 
it  is  another  example  of  his  earlier  and  more  intimate  man- 

^ Druckschriften,  pis.  7,  8,  16,  30,  87.  Plate  7  shows  a  beautiful  old  style 
type,  very  beautifully  set  i^ourjig.  199).  Plate  8  shows  Dutch  civilite  type, 
with  its  semi-calligraphic  initial.  Notice  the  "written"  look  of  the  capital 
letters  in  the  first  seven  lines.  Plate  16  shows  an  italic  type.  Notice  the  am- 
persands in  the  third,  fourth,  and  seventeenth  lines.  Plate  30  shows  a  small 
size  of  civilite.  Plate  87  exhibits  a  massive  old  style  roman  font,  in  which  ob- 
serve the  final  n's,  e's,  and  t's. 


♦  ♦ 


UC=  3  ^  tj 


Q^?f  Sfe 


u 


0) 


o  O 


u 


o 


C5 


Q 

CO  o 


* 


o 


•s. 


^ 


t*q 


Cj 


O" 


U  3 


O 

^  w  —  «? 

P  ^  C^ 


I 


s 


REGNI    NEAPOLITANI 

P   R   I   V    I   L   E  G    I   V   M. 

PHILIPPVS    DEI    GRATIA    REX 

CASTELLJE,    ARAGONVM,    V  T  R  I  V  S  QJ/ E 

SlCILI^jHlERVSALEM,  Vn  G  ARIi£,  D  ALM  ATIiE,  ET    CrOATI.£,&C. 

[  N  T  o N I V  s  Perrenotus,  S.R.C.Tit.  Sandi  Petri  ad  Vincula  Pre(by- 
iter,  Cardinalis  de  Granuela,prqfatic  Regix  &  Catholics  Maieftatis 
a  confiliis  ftatus,  6c  in  hoc  Regno  locum  tenens,  &Capitaneusge- 
'neralis,&c.  Mag*°  viro  Chriftop.horo  Plantino,  ciui  Antuerpien- 
iCiy  Sc  prsfats  Catholicae  Maieftatis  Prototypographo  fideli  Re- 
'gio,dile<5to,gratiamRegiam  Scbonam  voluntatem.  Cum  ex  prs- 
clarorum  virorum Uteris  certiores  fadi  fimus,  opus  Bibliorum  quinque  linguarum, 
cum  tribusApparatuumtomis,ceIeberrimum,reique  public^  ChriftianxYtilifTimu, 
eiufdemferenilTimae  Maieftatis  iulTu,  ope  atqueaufpiciis,  adpublicam  totiusChri- 
ftianiorbiscommoditatem  &  ornamentum,  typis  Iongceleganti{rimis,&:  prsftan- 
tifllmi  viriBenedidi  ArixMtfntaniprscipuacura&C  ftudio.  quam  emendatifllme 
a teexcufumeflejeiufdemq-, exemplar  fandifTimo  Domino  noftro  PP.Gregorio  xiii. 
oblatum,  itaplacuine,vtprsfatae  Maieftatis  fandos  conatus,  ScRegi  Gathohcoin 
primis  conuenientes,  fumfnopere  laudarit,  &:  ampliftlma  tibi  priuilegia  ad  hoc  opns 
tuendum  Motu  proprio  conceflerit-,  Nos quoque cum'naturali  genio  impellimur  ad 
fouendum  prasclara qusque  ingenia,  quae  infigni quopiam conatu  ad  publica  com- 
moda  promouenda  atque  augenda  aspirant-  primum  quidem  longe  prjeclariffimum 
hoc  fuae  Maieftatis  ftudium,  vtvereHeroicum&  Ptolomqi,  Eumenis,aiiorumque 
olimconatibusinBibliothecis  inftruendis  eb  przeftantius ,  qubdnon  vansftimulo 
glorisjvt  illi/ed  redse Religionisdojiferuandae 5c  propagandxzelo  fufceptum.meri- 
tb  fufpicientes  •,  deinde  eximiam  operam  dpdiflimj  B.  Ariae  Montani,ac  immortali 
laudedignamadmirantes,  rebuS^uetuis,quemad.modu  tuo  nomineexpetitur,pro- 
fpicere  cupientes,  ne  meritisfrauderis  frudibus  tants  opers,&:impenfe,quxfumma 
folicitudine  &  induftria  in  opus  adfinem  feliciter  perducendum  a  teetiam mfumpta 
elfeaccepimus-cumq[uecertb  cori(tet,opns  hoc  nunquam  hadenus  hoc  in  Regno  ex- 
cufumefTe,  dignumqueipfoS.fedisApoftoiicsfuftragiofitiudicatumvtdiuulgetut 
•ac  priuilegiis  ornetur.  Tuisigitur  iuftiffimis votis,  vtdeliberato  confilio,  ita  alacri  Sc 
exporreda  frontelubenterannuenteSjtenore  praefentium  ex  gratia  fpeciali,  prxfxtx 
Maieftatis  nomine,  cumdeliberationp  &a(fiftentia  Regij  collateralis  confilij,ftatui- 
mus  8c  decreuimus,  ne  quis  intra  viginti  annos  proximos,a  die  dat.praefentium  dcin- 
ceps  numcrandos,  in  hoc  Regno  didum  Bibliorum  opus,  cum  Apparatuum  tomis 
coniundis,  vcl  Apparatus  ipfos,  aur  eoru  partem  aliquam  feorrum,citraipfius  Chri- 
ftophori,autcaufam  &  iusabipfo  habentis,licentiam  impnmere,autabaliis  impre^ 
fa  vendere,aur  in  fuis  ofiicinis  vel  alias  tenere  poffit.  Volentes&.decernetes  exprefse, 

qubd 

199.  Page  from  B'lblia  Polyglotta:  Planting  Antwerp^  1572 
{t'educed) 


>-<         * 


"<  »— t 


o 


X  = 


z   o   -» 


a<i 


0-^ 


-  TJ     .« 


5  ';^ 

5  -2 


c 

•?» 

n 

^ 

w 

al 

■< 

"  i^ 

l-l 

o 

a. 

a:: 

ci 

o 

uu 

e: 

> 

.  .4 

!-■ 

H 

_c 

Z 

U 

< 

c 

o 

^ 

o 

c      o 


M4 


?- 


C 
e 

«9 

8 
J3 


8 


^ 


c'.s^.a  s-s  |,^  ^^"^ 


o-'^vSi,  fs   a  ;^ 


2    S    S    S 


8 

6 
o 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         11 

ner^  {Jig.  201).  This  book  deals  with  heliotrope,  thyme,  and 
other  godless  vegetation,  and  on  the  last  page  a  Canon  of 
Antwerp  Cathedral  attests  that  it  contains  nothing  contrary 
to  faith  or  morals.  Since  then  we  have  learned  that  the  mar- 
riage customs  of  plants  would  bring  to  the  cheek  "the  blush 
that  is  now  peculiar  to  the  middle-aged." 

The  later  Plantin  fonts  needed  great  space  around  them 
when  in  mass ;  and  this  they  have  in  that  splendid  Atlas 
by  Abraham  OrteP —  Theatnim  Orhis  Terranim — first  pub- 
lished in  1570.  In  a  copy  of  the  edition  of  1584  in  the  Li- 
brary of  Harvard  College,  the  elaborate  copper-plate  title- 
page  is  made  gorgeous  by  colour,  and  the  portrait  of  Ortel 
is  surrounded  with  a  complicated  framework  which  is  a 
mass  of  illumination.  The  maps  are  gaily  coloured,  too,  and 
their  decorative  cartouches  are  specially  brilliant.  The  typog- 
raphy (in  roman  and  italic  fonts)  stands  up  well  under  the 
strain  of  its  coloured  decoration.  The  prefatory  type-matter  is 
magnificent,  especially  the  page  of  spaced  capitals,  arranged 
in  a  dedication  to  Philip  II.  The  alphabetical  index  of  maps, 
in  spaced  capital. letters,  the  compliments  to  Ortel  in  Latin 
and  Greek,  and  the  tabular  arrangement  of  type  (in  the 
Nomenclator  Ptolemaicus  generally  bound  with  the  Atlas), 
are  all  most  distinguished.  The  final  "privilege"  in  civilite, 
and  directions  to  the  binder,  etc.,  on  the  last  page,  close  a 
book  in  which  a  difficult  problem  is  met  with  courage  and 
solved  with  gusto.  As  the  size  of  type  used  in  each  page  is 
dictated  by  a  desire  to  fill  it,  and  the  matter  varies  in  amount, 
the  volume  is  a  sort  of  specimen-book  of  Plantin's  fonts. 

Plantin's  folio  Ope?'a  of  Tacitus,  annotated  by  Lipsius, 
printed  in  1585  (a  third  issue  of  this  work)  is  also  a  beautiful 

For  other  examples  of  Plantin's  earlier  way  of  working,  see  title-pages  re- 
produced in  Rooses'  Plantin,  pp.  58,  60,  84. 
*  Commonly  known  as  Ortelius. 


12  PRINTING  TYPES 

book.  It  is  very  simply  arranged.  The  Annals  and  History 
occupy  a  section  by  themselves,  and  Lipsius'  commentary 
to  the  former,  and  notes  to  the  latter,  occupy  divisions  marked 
by  separate  title-pages.  This  fine,  liv^ely  piece  of  printing 
employs  for  its  preliminary  matter  many  of  Plantin's  mel- 
lowest and  most  beautiful  types.  The  opening  addresses, 
composed  in  noble  fonts  of  roman,or  in  an  italic  full  of  swing 
and  movement,  show  the  Gallic  touch.  In  the  body  of  the 
work  the  type  used  is  a  smaller  size  of  excellent  roman;  but 
the  pages  are  so  large,  there  are  such  masses  of  it,  and  it  is 
so  closely  set,  that  the  effect  is  a  bit  overpowering.  Lipsius' 
commentaries  at  the  end  show  that  sad  mixture  of  roman 
and  itahc,  spaced  capitals,  and  Greek  quotations,  dear  to  the 
learned  at  that  date.  Yet  in  the  main,  the  Tacitus  is  a  fine 
piece  of  printing. 

Plantin  also  printed  books  in  the  Flemish  black-letter 
current  at  that  day.  An  example  of  this  is  the  Rechten,  ende 
Costumen  van  Antwerpen^  printed  at  the  expense  of  that  city, 
in  1582.  It  is  not  by  any  means  a  "pure"  black-letter  book, 
for  (as  in  some  sixteenth  century  English  books)  roman 
was  used  as  a  display  letter  to  a  "norm"  of  black-letter — 
exactly  reversing  our  present-day  use  of  black-letter  and 
roman.  Its  tide,  preface,  and  some  displayed  matter  employ 
italic.  A  letter  quoted  in  the  black-letter  "Confirmation  of 
Privileges"  is  set  in  roman  type;  and  passages  in  roman 
here  and  there  occur.  But  the  text,  which  runs  to  nearly 
four  hundred  quarto  pages,  is  composed  in  a  superb  Flem- 
ish lettre  cle  forme^  massive  and  very  fine.  Some  passages  in 
civilite  are  interesting,  and  so  are  the  decorated  initials.  This 
book  is  supplemented  by  a  sort  of  "order  of  procedure"  for 
meetings  of  city  officers.  Would  that  "municipal  printing" 
to-day  had  such  dignity !  {Jig.  202). 

In  addition  to  the  Polyglot  and  other  Bibles,  and  missals. 


14^ 

CAROLI    CLVSII 

RARIORVM     STIRPIVM 

H  I  S  T  O  R  1  -€, 

LIBER    SECVNDVS. 

R  B  o  R  V  M,  fruticum &  faffruticum 
abfoluta  Hiftoria,  reliquarum  ftirpium 
defcriptiones  adgrediemur  ,  inter  quas 
^_._^._.  Coronaris  ( quod  infigni  colorum  va- 
rietace,  omnium  oculos  ilico  in  fe  conuertant,  eofque 
mirum  in  modum  lecreent)  mcrito  primum  locum 
fibi  vendicare  videntur.  Initium  igitur  a  Bulbofis,  vt- 
pote  nobilioribus ,  facientes ,  reliquas  ordine  deinde 
profequcmur. 

De  Narciilb.        cap.  i. 

Dv  o  flint  apud  Diofcoridem  Narajfi  genera, rKg- 
dio  luteus ,  &  tnedio  furpurem.  Ego,  prxterpo^ 
firemUf^fti  nonnullis  N arbonenfs  Callupratisjpon- 
te  prouenit)  qnatuor  alia  genera  perHtJpanias  obfir" 
uaui,  magnitHdine,prHm  f)liorHm%  firma  &  colore, 
jlorendi  deni^  tempore  inter Je  differentia . 

Prior,  ergo  Narcijfta  terna  aut  quaterna  fvlia  i . 
hakt,  virentia,  ohlonga,  Porrt  filtis  fmilta  fire,  cau-  JJ^^f^^J^^ 
lem  concauumyftriatum,fmefilti4 ,  pedem  altum^  in-  "^s ' 
terdumaltiorem  ^&infimmofiores  (ex  aut  oBo  ,plu' 
resve ,  triangulis  pedimlis  inftdentes ,  drememhrdna 
erttmpentes,  mediocriter  amplos,  CHmgrauimte  c^uad'i 
odoratos  ,Jex  foliis  albi^  conjkntes ,  quorum  medium^ 
eahx  omnim  IhHhs  occnpat  ,Jbmina  breuiafix  cum^ 

Q^$  totidem^ 


201.  Page  from  Rariorum  Stirpium  Hispaniae  Historia 
Planting  Antwerp^  1576 


Rechten, 

ende  Coftumen 

van 

Antwerpen. 


Mmu  JmMttit 

I. 

Nden  eerflen  ,  fprekende  ^• 


penticniet  alleenliic^  fgenetiatljmnen 

' V^  JJ|i  tit  poo^tenoft  muermiJanDetllatstbe- 

T  ^IM.  ODten/maeroDcfeDatfiiipteiventiebm^ 

1^  /w^    ^tn  ht  Witp^tpt  Der  feJun:  ftatit  g^ele- 

WtltU  WWt  mtt  mht  fttttt  tot  Doine-brngee/enUe  1 1. 
2i3trel)em/enbeairoo  tjooitsomtieftatjt^an  3ntU)erpen/ 
bolfllb^itie  t^miltgit  bphtn  iktpftt  ^anmiiianus  ut^ 
leent  in  Bommbn  aiu%  1 4  s  s^naeuittDijfen  tiaaDe  cfiaerte 
tiietljpgDeuoegljt 

Itrniallrtie  gjene/tiiebinmntieuooafcljieum  limitm  ni. 
sebo^en  too^Dm  /  3m  ]^ooittts/mht  D'jnUJOonDcrs  aU 
daer/5tin3n5Dcfttment3att:ainttDerpen* 

ad  ail 

202.  Pa^e  of  Rechten^  ende  Costwnen  van  Antwerpen^  Planting  1582 

{reduced  ) 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         13 

breviaries,  and  such-like  liturgical  books,  I  recommend  the 
student  of  Plantin's  work  to  examine  the  botanical  books 
by  Lobel,  Dodoens,  and  Charles  de  I'Ecluse ;  the  atlases  by 
Abraham  Ortel;  Luigi  Guicciardini's  Description  of  the 
Low  Countries  in  various  languages ;  the  works  of  Arias 
Montano  and  Justus  Lipsius ;  the  music  of  G.  de  la  Hele, 
Cornet,  and  others;  the  emblem  books  of  Junius,  Alciati, 
Sambucus,  etc.,  and  the  poetry  of  Houwaert. 

Plantin  died  in  1589.  He  was  buried  in  Antwerp  Cathe- 
dral, and  on  his  tomb  was  inscribed : 

CHRISTOPHORUS  SITUS  HIC  PLANTINUS,  REGIS  IBERI 
TYPOGRAPHUS,  SED  REX  TYPOGRAPHUM  IPSE  FUIT 

Plantin's  two  daughters  were  married  to  printers  —  the 
elder  to  Raphelengius,  associated  for  many  years  with 
Plantin,  and  who  previously  taught  Latin  and  Greek  at 
Cambridge,  and  afterwards  accepted  the  chair  of  Hebrew 
at  Leyden.  To  this  University  he  was  also  printer — as  was 
Plantin  himself  for  a  brief  period.  The  other  daughter 
married  Moretus,  who,  after  Plantin's  death  in  1589,  in 
association  with  his  widow,  carried  on  the  press  —  the 
Plantin-Moretus  Office,  as  it  was  usually  called.  Its  work, 
at  its  best,  preserved  much  of  the  later  Plantin  style.  Two 
examples  of  it  must  suffice.  The  first  is  Rembert  Do- 
doen's  Stirpium  Hisioria^  printed  by  Plantin's  grandson, 
Johan 'Moretus,  in  1616 — a  revised  Latin  edition  of  the 
book  earlier  issued  by  Plantin.  The  preliminary  matter  is 
set  in  Plantin's  superb  roman  and  italic  fonts  {Jig.  203). 
The  actual  book,  most  agreeably  illustrated  with  brilliantly 
printed  woodcuts  of  plants,  is  composed  in  a  small  size  of 
roman  type  of  great  mellowness  and  beauty.  Simple  two- 
line  initial  letters  start  each  chapter,  the  title  of  which  is 
set  in  a  small  italic.  It  is  a  charming  piece  of  work — ex- 


14  PRINTING  TYPES 

cept  that  the  chapter-heads  are  too  much  crowded  into  the 
text — and  a  fine  example  of  "the  Plan  tin  manner";  per- 
haps too  much  of  a  survival  to  be  typical  of  Moretus.  An 
odd  feature  is  the  final  table  of  names  of  the  plants  de- 
scribed, in  different  languages.  Arabic  names,  etc.,  are  set 
in  italic;  Italian,  Spanish,  and  French,  in  roman;  but  Ger- 
man, Bohemian,  EngHsh,  etc.,  equivalents  are  arranged  in 
black-letter.  Dodoens  w^as  among  the  great  botanists  of  his 
day,  and  Plantin  printed  a  number  of  his  books. 

Another  seventeenth  century  book  from  the  Plantin  Of- 
fice is  the  Jesuit  Hugo's  Obsidio  Bredana.  This  interesting 
folio  gives  an  account  of  the  siege  of  Breda  —  familiar 
still  through  Velasquez'  great  picture  of  its  surrender.  Its 
printing  retains  much  of  Plantin's  later  manner.  It  is  com- 
posed entirely  in  an  ample  roman  type.  It  w^as  issued  in 
1626  and  is  a  very  dignified  piece  of  work. 

The  Officina  Plantiniana — more  a  palace  than  a  print- 
ing-house— in  the  Marche  du  Vendredi  at  Antwerp,  has 
long  been,  and  still  is  (as  the  Musee  Plantin),  one  of  the 
sights  of  Europe.  It  is  probably  the  most  beautiful  building 
— both  inside  and  out — dedicated  to  the  uses  of  printing, 
in  the  world;  nor  is  there  any  other  establishment  which 
gives  such  an  accurate  idea  of  an  early  printing-house.  The 
presses,  type,  and  materials  of  Plantin,  Moretus,  and  their 
successors  have  all  been  preserved,  as  well  as  their  account- 
books  and  correspondence.  Not  the  least  valuable  part  of 
the  collection  is  the  original  plates  and  blocks  of  ornaments, 
and  designs  drawn  for  the  press  by  Rubens  and  other 
artists.  To  the  student  the  most  interesting  of  the  rooms  are 
the  type-cutters'  work-shop,  the  letter-foundry,  the  press- 
room, and  the  proofreaders'  room,  which  are  kept  much 
in  their  primitive  condition.  The  building  and  its  con- 
tents were  in  the  possession  of  successive  members  of  the 


Largm  opes  proprias  dtjfundens  folm  in  omnes. 
Sic  hac  Script orum  'veterum  monimentu  'volumm 
jUuJira^  JplendoreJuO'i  noBem^^  recent unu 
(tArte  noua  pulfa  penitm  caligme  nudat. 
Jure  igitur  'viuax,  omnij^  perennius  ^rc^ 
(i^aiejia^e fua  fiabit ^nec  firmius  'vUuttu 
Olim  cudit  opus  ijapidiz  fornacihus  jEtnA 
(^yclopum  lajfata  manus^ferroq^  coaHiZ 
Sudantis  rara  fub  'vejie  Fyracmonis  artes 
Sentifcent  mi  cariem  priusj  &  folidajpt^ 
Frauda4:us  St er opes  operam  plorabit  inertenu, 
O  quafama  tuas  olim  feikibitur  'vmbras? 
Venturi  quantmpopuli  memoraberis  orc^ 
^odon^fie  pMer?  quanto  celebrabere  plaufu? 
Cum  tibife  papm  debebunt plebsque  ^pMres^^^ 
SeruMiq^fenes^  ignaraq^  'virgo  mariti? 
Funera  quid  metuis?  ^viuet  poH  bujia  fuperjies 
Tars  immenfa  tui^nulloj^  taceberis  /zuo^ 
oAtque  ipfo  afeniofumet  tua  gloria  vires. 
^N^m  prius  ajira  polum  toto  radiant'ta  cdo 
^ejiituentyjierilesq^  fragofum  littus  arens>^ 
Jnq,^  autumnali  noua  palmite  gemma  tumebit^ 
Et  pede  prejfa  jiuet  tepido  'vindemia  Vere^ 
Quam  tuceant  nomen^  tuum;,  laudesq^  minoresj 
Jrritaq^  inter eant  oper^  conamina  veJirA* 

203.  Page  of  Italic  from  Plantin  Office^  Antiverp^  1616 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         15 

Moretus  family  until  1875,  when  it  was  ceded  to  the  city 
of  Antwerp  by  Edouard  Moretus,  the  last  proprietor,  who 
died  at  Antwerp  in  1880.  The  place  is  full  of  charm,  and 
its  sunny,  vine-clad  courtyard  a  haunt  of  ancient  peace. 


II 

ELZEVIR,  the  other  great  name  in  the  history  of  print- 
ing in  the  Netherlands,  belongs  properly  to  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  founder  of  the  family,  Louis  Elzevir, 
a  bookseller  and  bookbinder  at  Lou  vain,  removed  to  Ley- 
den  for  religious  reasons — the  Elzevirs  were  Protestants — 
in  1580,  and  began  to  publish  books  there  three  years  later. 
Five  of  his  sons  carried  on  the  Elzevir  activities.  Utrecht, 
Leyden,  Amsterdam,  all  had  members  of  the  family  at 
work  there,  and  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  they  were 
the  best  known  printers  of  the  Low  Countries.  The  great 
figures  in  the  family  were  Bonaventure  and  a  nephew 
Abraham — partners  from  the  year  1625 — who  published 
editions  of  the  classics  in  convenient yormc^.  "In  the  Elze- 
virs," as  Aldis  says,  "we  have  parted  company  with  the 
scholar-printers  who  themselves  edited  and  revised  the 
texts  which  they  presented  to  the  learned  world.  We  have, 
instead,  intelligent  printer-publishers,  excellent  men  of  busi- 
ness, anxious  to  produce  books  that  both  textually  and  typo- 
graphically should  sustain  their  credit  for  good  work.  To 
secure  correctness  they  employed  scholars  to  edit  their  pub- 
Hcations  and  see  them  through  the  press." 

The  Elzevirs  are  popularly  remembered  nowadays  by 
their  little  editions  in  32mo,  with  engraved  title-pages, 
narrow  margins,  and  compact  pages  of  a  solid,  monoto- 
nous type  which  is  Dutch  and  looks  so.  These  are  the 
volumes  which  romantic  novelists — who  are  seldom  good 


16  PRINTING  TYPES 

bibliographers — like  to  call  "priceless  Elzevirs,"  though 
they  were  then,  and  are  now,  cheap  books.  These  and  other 
Elzevir  editions  had  the  merit  of  handy  form,  good  edit- 
ing, and  eminently  common-sense  qualities.  But  even  this 
scarcely  accounts  for  their  tremendous  popularity.  The 
Abbe  de  Fontenai,  writing  in  1776,  says  that  the  Elzevirs 
"have  made  Holland  celebrated  for  printing,  through  an 
elegance  of  type  which  the  most  famous  printers  of  Eu- 
rope have  never  been  able  to  attain,  either  before  or  since. 
This  charm  consists  in  the  clearness,  delicacy,  and  perfect 
uniformity  of  the  letters,  and  in  their  very  close  fitting  to 
each  other";  and  he  adds  that  "the  taste  of  young  people 
for  literature  very  often  shows  itself  by  a  great  fondness 
for  these  little  Dutch  editions,  which  give  so  much  pleasure 
to  the  eye."  John  Evelyn,  w  ho  was  in  Leyden  a  hundred 
and  twenty -five  years  earlier,  was  of  the  same  mind,  and 
speaks  of  visiting  the  printing-house  and  shop  of  the  fa- 
mous Elzevir,  "renowned,  for  the  politeness  of  the  characters 
and  editions  of  what  he  has  published,  through  Europe."  ^ 

As  publishers,  the  Elzevirs  held  somewhat  the  relative 
position  to  the  work  of  their  time  that  Aldus  did  in  his  day. 
They  were  pioneers  in  the  popularization  of  books  through 
convenient  Jbrmaf  and  low  price.  How  modern  in  ideas  as 
publishers  the  Elzevirs  were,  is  shown  by  their  series  of 
travel-books  called  "The  Republics" — little  historical  and 
geographical  descriptions  of  European  countries  by  vari- 
ous authors,  put  together  by  a  judicious  use  of  scissors  and 
the  paste-pot.  The  Hehetiomm  Mespubiica,  devoted  to  Swit- 
zerland ;  Respublica^  sive  Status  Regui  Scotise  et  Hibemise 
{Jig.  204),  a  similar  volume  on  Scotland  and  Ireland — both 
issued  in  1627;  and  a  like  book  on  France — Gailia,  by 

*  Evelyn  also  records  that  at  Antwerp  at  "tlie  shop  of  Plantine  I  bought  some 
books  for  the  namesake  only  of  that  famous  printer," 


fim 


"% 


&i  - 


'W 


H 


-£3 


•-4J      •> 
"    O 

'^'^  s 

^  o  eo 

£   =  a 

^  a 

n   (J  u 

^^  6 

V  o  '^ 


pjj    .  ,<i. 


^    S*    M 
ta     H     W 


•*  ;i 


s  'a  2 

!s     »s      ■-* 

^   tS    o 


> 


•4 


^ 
Q 

■^ 


o 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         17 

J.  de  Laet — published  in  1629,  formed  parts  of  this  pocket 
series. 

Of  the  celebrated  Elzevir  editions  of  the  classics  in  small 
format  (styled  m-12^  but  what  we  should  call  32mo),  the 
Caesar  of  1635  is  considered  one  of  the  best.  This  was  pub- 
lished at  Leyden.  Its  engraved  title-page,  a  preface  set  in 
italic,  and  prefatory  matter  printed  sometimes  in  roman  and 
sometimes  in  italic,  its  neat  little  maps,  its  tight  little  head- 
pieces,^ and  compact,  monotonous  type  are  very  like  all  El- 
zevirs. These  editions  ivere  all  very  much  alike.  Each  divi- 
sion of  a  book  generally  started  with  title  and  chapter  heads 
set  in  capitals  and  small  capitals,  very  much  spaced;  the 
subject  of  the  chapter  (if  any)  being  set  in  a  tiny  italic.  The 
running-title  was  in  capitals  and  small  capitals,  also  spaced, 
and  page  after  page  in  book  after  book  was  set  in  this  style. 
To  have  seen  one  Elzevir  volume  in  prose  and  another  in 
poetry,  in  ih\s  format^  is  to  have  seen  all  —  or  certainly  as 
many  as  one  wishes  to  see !  How  any  one  ever  read  with 
comfort  pages  so  solidly  set  in  such  monotonous  old  style 
type  passes  understanding — or  at  least  mine.  Elzevir  edi- 
tions were  generally  unannotated,  and  if  notes  occurred, 
they  were  usually  placed  at  the  end  of  the  book. 

The  Pliny  of  1635  and  the  Virgil  of  1636  stand  on  a  par- 
ity with  the  Caesar  in  the  estimation  of  bibliophiles.  The 
Leyden  Terence  of  1635  is  also  one  of  the  most  esteemed 
32mo  editions,  and  is  easier  to  read  because  in  Latin  verse. 
The  Leyden  Florus  of  1638,  though  of  the  s?iTi\t  format,  is 
more  attractive.  In  1642,  the  Elzevirs  printed  the  Opera  of 
Cicero  in  ten  volumes,  32mo,  and  this,  as  Elzevirs  go,  is 

^  The  printers'  marks,  head-pieces,  and  ornaments  of  the  Leyden  and  Amster- 
dam establishments,  with  a  collection  of  similar  material  from  different  sev- 
enteenth century  Dutch  printing-houses,  may  be  seen  in  Rahir's  Catalogue 
d'une  Collection  Unique  de  Volumes  imfirimes  fiar  les  Elzevier  et  divers 
Typografihes  Hollandais  du  XFIfi  SiMe,  etc.  Paris:  Morgand,  1896. 


18  PRINTING  TYPES 

an  attractive  edition.  The  engraved  title-page  is  handsome, 
the  portrait  of  Cicero  not  bad,  the  prefatory  matter  well 
arranged,  and  the  rest  of  the»,work  made  up  of  the  solid 
pages  characteristic  of  the  house  {Jig.  205).  Daniel  Elze- 
vir's Amsterdam  edition  of  1675  of  St.  Augustine's  Con- 
JessionSj  in  32mo,  is  also  considered  among  the  best  of  the 
Elzevir  editions;  and  perhaps  it  is — though  not  beautiful. 
The  Institutes  of  Justinian,  an  edition  of  which  was  printed 
by  the  same  house  in  the  next  year,  plentifully  supplied  with 
rubrication,  is  a  book  which  was  thought  charming  in  its 
time.  Still  other  editions  which  the  student  may  look  at  are 
the  Amsterdam  Decameron  of  1665  and  the  Virgil  of  1676. 
Though  considered  so  remarkable  in  their  day,  these  edi- 
tions now  appear  merely  "well-enough"  little  books  for  the 
pocket.  But  they  were  largely  copied  by  other  Dutch  pub- 
lishers, and  by  publishers  throughout  Europe — the  same 
rugged  little  types  were  employed,  the  same  style  of  com- 
position was  repeated,  and  the  same  effect  produced,  except 
that  it  was  not  so  good.  The  Elzevir  32mo  editions  had  a 
series  of  decorations  peculiar  to  themselves,  which  were  as 
"air-tight"  in  effect  as  the  pages  which  they  adorned. 

The  Elzevirs  also  printed  editions  of  the  classics  in  oc- 
tavo— less  typical  in  one  sense,  but  better,  because  the  type, 
being  larger,  was  handsomer,  and  being  more  leaded,  was 
easier  to  read.  The  typographic  style,  however,  was  much 
the  same.  These  editions  were  annotated,  and  the  very  full 
notes  were  set  in  double  column  at  the  foot  of  each  page. 
The  octavo  edition  of  Caesar  of  1661  is  a  good  instance  of 
this  format  {Jig.  206). 

If  a  32mo  Elzevir  edition  were  inflated  until  it  became 
a  folio,  you  would  have  a  very  good  likeness  to  the  second 
revised  edition  of  Philip  Cluverius's    Gennania  A?itigua^ 


i.iS  De    Oratore 

M.  TVLLII  CICERONIS 

A  D 

QV INTVM      FRATREM 

Dialogi  tres  dc  Oratore. 

DiALOGVS,   SEv    Lib.    I. 

^^^^^^53  O  G  I  T  A  N  T I  mihi  fxpenumeio,8c 
^^jf^^kli  memoiia  vecera  tepecenci ,  petbeati. 


fuiHe,  Quince  frater.illi  viden  folent, 
qui  in  optima  Republica,  cum  &c  ho- 
noribus  ,  6c  reium  gefbrum  gloria 
florerenc,  eum  vicicaifum  tenerepotuecunc,  vc 
vel  in  negocio  fine  peiiculo.vel  in  otic  cum  digni- 
taceeflepoflent.  Acfuittempus  illud  ,  ciim  mihi 
quoquc  inicium  tequiefcendi ,  atque  animum  ad 
vtriufque  noftiiim  piicclara  ftudia  lefetendi  foie, 
juftum,  &  prope  ab  omnibus  conceflum  efle  arbi- 
tiaier ,  fi  infiniais  forenfiura  lerum  labor ,  Sc  am- 
bitionis  occupario,  decuifuhonotum,  etiam  ica- 
tis  flexu  conftitiflecQuam  fpem  cogitationum,84 
confiliorum  meorum ,  cum  graues  coramunium 
temporum.tum  variinoftn  cafus  fefelierunt.Nam 
qui  locus  quietis  &C  tranquillicatis  pleniflimus  fo- 
re videbatuc ,  in  eo  maxims  moleftiamm,  &  tur- 
bulentiffimx  cempeftates  excicerunc.  Neque  vero 
nobis  cupicncibus ,  atque  exoptantibusfmdlus  otii 
dams  eft  adeas  arteis ,  quibus  a  pueris  dedici  fui- 
mus,  celebcandas ,  inter  nofque  recolendas.  Nam 
prima  ztace  incidimus  in  ipfara  percutbationenx 
difciplinac  veteris ,  &c  confulatu  deuenimus  in  me- 
dium return  omnium  cerramen  atque  difcrimen, 
&  hoc  tempus  omne  poft  confulacum  objecimus 
iis  fluftibus,  qui  per  iios  a  communi  pelte  depulfi, 
in  Dormecipros  leduudaninc  Sed  umen  in  bis  vd 

affe- 


Libert.  tg^ 

afpeiitatibus  return  ,  vel  anguftiis  temporis ,  obfe- 
qnar  ftudiis  noftris :  &  ,  quantum  mihi  velfraus 
inimicorum,  vel  caufla:  amicorum.vel  Re(publica 
tribuet  orii,  ad  fcribendum  potiflimum  conferara. 
Tibi  vero,  frater,  neque  hortanti  deero,  neque  to- 
ganti.  Nam  neque  autorirate  quifquamapudme 
plus  te  valete  poteft,  neque  voluntate.  Ac  mihi  rc- 
petenda  eft  veteris  cujufdam  memotia:  non  fane 
fatisexplicata  recordacio,  fed,  vt  arbitror ,  aptaad 
id,  quod  requiris,  vt  cognofcas  qua:  viri  omnium 
eloquenciflimi,  clariflimiquefenferintdeomnira» 
tione  dicendi.  Vis enim.vt  mihi  (xpe  dixifti,  qua- 
niam  qux  pueris, aut  adolefcentulis  nobis  ex  com- 
mentariolis  nofttis  inchoata  atque  rudia  excide- 
runt ,  vix  hac  state  digna ,  &  hoc  vfu ,  quem  ex 
caufus ,  quas  diximus ,  tot  tantifque  confecuti  fu- 
mus,  aliquid  iifdem  de  rebus  politius  a  nobis, pro- 
feftiufque  proferri :  folefque  nonnunquamhacde 
re  a  me  in  difputationibus  noltrisdiflencire,  quod 
ego  emditidimorum  hominum  artibus  eloquen- 
tiam  contineri  ftatuam:  tu  autem  illam  ab  elegan- 
tia  doiftrins  fegregapdamputej,  &  in  quodam  in- 
genii  atque  cxcrcitationis  geneie  ponendam.  Ac 
mihi  quidem ,  f^penumero  in  fummos  homines, 
ac  fummis  ingeniis  prafditos  intuenti,qu«rendum 
efTe  vifum  eft,  quid  eflet,cur  plures  in  omnibus  ar- 
ribus  quam  in  dicendo  admirabiles  extitiftent; 
nam  quocumque  te  animo,&:  cogicatione  conuer- 
tetis,  permultos  excellentes  in  quoque  generevi*- 
debis ,  non  mediocrium  artium  ,  fed  prope  maxi- 
mavum.  Q«is  enim  eft,qui,fi  clarorum  hominuia 
fcientiam  rerum  geftarum  vel  vtilitare,  vel  magni- 
tudine  metirivelit,  nonanteponatoraton'impe- 
ratorem  ?  Quis  autem  dubitet,  quin  belli  duces  ex 
hac  vna  ciuitace  praEftantiflimos  pene  innumerat. 
M  i  bileis 


205.  Pages  of  Cicero:  Elzevir^  Ley den^  1642 


6i 


L    I 


B     E     R 


II. 


Uum  cfTct  CxQn:  in  crteriorc  Gallia  in  hibernis, 
ita  un  fupra  dcmonftravimus,  crcbri  ad  cum 
iumorcs  affcrcbantur ,  litcrifquc  item  Labie- 

ni  cernor  fi.cbat  >  omnes  Belgas,  quam  ter- 

tiam-efle  Gallia;  partem  dixeramus,  contra  populum  R. 
conjurare ,  obfidefque  inter  ie  dare.  Conjurandi  has 
cflecauflas:  primum,  quodvererentiir,  nc,  omni  pa- 
cata  Gallia  ,  ad  cos  excrcitus  noftcr  adduccrctur :  dein- 
de  quod  ab  nonnuilis  Gallis  foUicirarcntur ,  partim  qui 
Germanos  diutins  in  Gallia  verfari  nollent  j  ita  populi 
R.  exercitam  hiemare  atque  inveterafcere  in  Gallia  mo- 

lefta 


Vtirn  ejfet  Cafar]  Anno  ab 
U.C.Dcxcvii  inccpithoc 
tertium  bellum  ,  ColT.  P. 
Coinclio  P.  F.  Lentulo 
Spinthere ,  Ck  (>;_C.Tcilio 
Q_^F.  Mctello  Nepote.  Montan. 

In  citericrt  Gallia  ]  Indudebatur 
alitiquitus  Gallia  Rheno  flumine ,  O- 
ceano ,  Pyrenil'".  jugis  dc  Alpibus.  At 
po.tlquam  Galloriim  pars  Itolix  folura 
occiipavit  ,  Alpes  tranfgiefla ,  termi- 
nus ab  hoc  latere  fadlus  eft  Apenninus 
mons  5c  Afis  amnis ,  ad  Anconam  uf^ 
que  >  maris  Adriatici  urbeiii.  Totus 
autem  hie  traclus  Romanis  divifus  eft 
inCalliam- ulteriorem  &  citeiiorem: 
hxc  etiara  Italica ,  Cilalpina ,  ut  &  To- 
gata  jpromilcue  difta  eft.  Vocis  etymon 
alii  A  yi>^'*,  quod  lac  Latinis,  deri- 
vant  I  quia  laiteos ,  id  eft ,  albi  colons 
homines  producit :  Diodorus  a  Galata 
HetcuUs  iilld :  infulse  Bodinus  Cchis 


hoc  nomen  contiglfli  annititur  proba- 
re  ,  quod ,  ciim  oibem  terrarnm  per- 
agrarcnt,  fe  mutub  interrogarent ,  Ou 
altons-noiu?  quo proficifcimur:  ex  quo  VO- 
catDS  vu'.t  Oualloncs ;  &  a  Latinis,  per 
G  effeientibus ,  Gallos.  Optimc  in  hac 
caligine  videt  doftiflimus  CluTciius: 
qui  a  Celtics  voce  G/i//i;«  (quam  nunc 
dicimus  Wallai ,  indtcatque  iter  face- 
re  )  nomen  derivat.  Quinn  enim  exun- 
dante  domi  multitudine  ,  exteras  rc- 
giones  peterc  Galli  coepiflent :  parte  il- 
lomm  in  Italiam ,  parte  in  lUyricum, 
atque  indc  in  Gr.Tciani  &  Afiam ,  par- 
te in  Germaniam  delata :  a  re  ipsa  in- 
vento  vocabulo ,  proximis  Germanis 
Illyriilque  didti  fiint  thi  GallcnXwc  Cal- 
ler ,  &  alia  dialeclo  TVallcr ;  quod  voce 
a;quipollenti  Vulgo  dicimus  die  •cean- 
derer ,  Lilinc pcregrinaToris.  Ex  hoc  La- 
tini ,  vocabulum  livo  ori  accommodan- 
tes ,  formaiunt  GaUi.  Montai;. 

Jie^'14 


206.  Pa^e  of  Caesar  (octavo) :  Elzevir,  Amsterdam^  1661 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         19 

printed  at  the  Elzevirs'  Leyden  house  in  1631,  for  the  for- 
mula used  in  making  it  is  about  the  same.  Except  for  the 
condensed  italic  of  the  reprinted  introduction  to  the  first 
edition  —  quite  a  new  note  in  italic  type — the  fonts  used 
are  larger  versions  of  those  in  smaller  books.  Type  well 
set  and  displayed  by  good  presswork  gives  a  general  effect 
that  is  excellent,  and  the  masses  of  Greek  quotations  make  it 
look  very  learned.  The  same  author's  Sicilia  Antiqua  (some- 
times included  as  a  supplement  to  the  Italia  Antiqua  of 
1624),  printed  by  the  Elzevir  office  in  folio  in  1619,  is  less 
conventional  in  style.  Both  books  have  engraved  titles  and 
maps,  and  the  Germania  a  good  many  copper-plate  illus- 
trations. The  Historia  Natwalis  Brasilise  of  Piso  and  Marc- 
gravius,  issued  in  1648  with  the  Amsterdam  imprint  of 
Louis  Elzevir,  is  a  good  example  of  an  Elzevir  folio.  The 
text  is  printed  in  a  handsome  but  rather  too  regular  roman, 
which  is  very  Elzevirian  indeed. 

In  a  letter  written  from  Amsterdam  in  1681  by  the  widow 
of  Daniel  Elzevir  to  the  widow  of  Moretus,  at  Antwerp, 
we  learn  that  the  writer  wished  to  dispose  of  part  of  the 
type-foundry  inherited  from  her  husband,  Daniel  Elzevir, 
which  had  descended  in  turn  from  Louis  Elzevir.  Some  of 
its  material  was  the  work  of  Christoffel  van  Dyck,  the  great 
Dutch  designer  and  type-cutter. 

"Not  feeling  myself  competent  to  manage  everything," 
she  wTites,  "I  have  decided  to  sell  my  type-foundry.  It  con- 
sists of  twenty-seven  sets  of  punches  and  fifty  sets  of  ma- 
trices, which  are  the  work  of  Christoffel  van  Dijk,  the 
best  master  of  his  time,  and  of  our  own.  This  foundry  is, 
consequendy,  the  most  famous  which  has  ever  existed.  I 
have  desired  to  inform  you  of  the  intended  sale,  and  to  send 


20  PRINTING  TYPES 

you  specimens  and  catalogue  so  that,  if  agreeable  to  your 
plans,  you  can  seize  the  occasion  and  profit  by  it." 

With  this  letter  she  sent  a  broadside  specimen- sheet 
which  is  reproduced,  and  the  heading  of  which  reads : 

"Proofs  of  types  cut  by  the  late  Christoffel  van  Dyck 
such  as  will  be  sold  at  the  residence  of  the  widow  of  the  late 
Daniel  Elsevier,  on  the  Canal,  near  the  Papen-bridge,  at  the 
Elm,  Wednesday,  March  5,  1681"  {Jig.  207). 

This  broadside  shows  forty  sorts  of  characters,  if  we 
include  two  music  fonts.  There  are  four  kinds  of  capital 
letters,  thirteen  roman,  twelve  italic  (the  "pearl"  not  having 
any  italic  of  its  own),  eight  black-letter,  one  Greek,  and  two 
music  fonts.  Most  of  these  types  are  recognizable  as  Dutch 
by  their  sturdy  qualities  of  workmanship,  and,  particularly 
in  the  smaller  sizes  of  roman  and  italic,  by  a  tiresome  even- 
ness of  design.  Their  closely  fitted,  large  face  on  a  small  body 
was  preeminently  practical,  and  adapted  them  for  the  small 
formats  of  the  Elzevir  publications.  In  a  table  given  by 
Enschede  in  his  Fondeties  de  Caracferes,  he  attributes  but 
twenty-eight  of  these  characters  to  Van  Dyck.^  The  forms 
of  the  types  call  for  little  attention ;  the  Augustijii  Romeyn 
and  the  Augustijn  Ciirsijf  (that  in  the  second  column)  have 
certain  swash  letters  which,  in  the  roman,  remind  one  of 
Plantin's  fonts.  Some  of  the  swash  letters  in  the  Kleene 
Kanon  Cursijf  {sixth  in  the  first  column)  and  the  capital 
Q's  in  the  Paragon  Cursijf  (next  to  the  last  in  the  first  col- 
umn) are  interesting.  It  was  from  Dutch  swash  letters — 
so  much  admired  by  Moxon^ — that  the  variant  capitals  in 

*  In  the  first  column  of  the  specimen,  the  first,  fiftli,  sixth,  seventh,  and  ninth 
types  shown  are  his.  In  the  second  column,  the  first  three,  and  the  capitals  of 
\he  Augustijn  and  Cursijf.  In  the  third  column,  the  first,  third,  sixth,  seventh, 
eighth,  and  nintli,  and  the  last  one;  and  all  the  types  in  the  fourth  column. 
*Moxon's  Mechanick  Exercises,  or  the  Doctrine  of  Handy- Works  afifilied 
to  the  Art  of  Printing,  pi.  15. 


z 


w 


1 


D 

"A 
< 
> 


o 


vt 


J 

o 

h 

•-4 


^^^B^^ 


r> 


•^ 


Si 


I 

Si 


I  ^ 


1*^  !  W 


W 


H- 1 


I 
I 


o 


r 

•"Si 


a 


?>». 


2f   O   w 


'iO. 


iipi 

."  iri  tt  tn  J*  *^  »^  ■" 


■it 


Hm¥A^ 


s^2 


C"  .3  tJi  o  c  H  f* 
etc  <r*  3  ^!  S  2^ 

go's  S^O  g^  3 


"  I S  y  « =  s  s 

3Ss2  a,2«aB 


,s:s. 


It  fe 


I  i  5 


3  5  -1  o=;r  — ■ 

=  r.   °-J.    £    -.  u. 

C  3    rt    «    c    -.  -^ 

.2  c  I  5-  s  ^  Q 


i  —  *■ 


S  5  i:  «: 


e  :=  ^  5--a  §  -3 


ft  .i: 


So 
"nop  a.«  •<    . 


i  (S  ''  ?  "^  ^  i  ^) 

0.-0=    o    "3"3  0' 

p  a  2  "2  2  -  X  ° 

"  §    .   g  c  £fc:2 

— *■-   'r  ^'s  '5  =  '" 


s  "^  i: 

§    g     o 


t 


<  K  H  2  S  •-U  N 
c  -ii  -o  •sH  ■  -  UJ  ^ 


^ 


•^    o  £  rt  -g  y 
if  2  i  3  3I 


^  „  ^  a.x 

'^^  n  S  « 


5i 

< 


OJ^' 


«?=59* 


ifflltliiH 


H    S 


=  ■5  ? 

2  -o-  (u  ><  J3  o  tI5   c:  rS  ^  <i  5;  t;  i  ts     -   ^ 


ilia.Mi.. 

^  L=  §~  ct^  ^^ 
c   Li:  "  -a  In  'S  = -r  -   "^    „ 

(-:  .0  '3  «  z  s^  o  r-  p  J  a:  "^  5  <5 

■P   P  >  -   .r '    (ffl   s     5  V>  .r  ■ 


0    u   r.   r/    'i  V  •*    *     S     *    « 
2   C  "^   r  •-■  "^  <    '^    ^     S  -^   01    a    K 

"''=■-"-"     '•"'ISO/ 


5    5:   s   5 

2  5  2  "^  ^3  ^  _  ^ 

;,     .r%^»    -r^     ^   ~    ;!    3   S    !    ^O 


a  ^  n  §  2  s  -^ 

<  -s  3  S 

3    ?    O- 


l"-!   S, 


-  x  c-  2  f'  -  y  "  2 


S=2q 


3    >i  O  d 


s  S  c;  c^   -^ 


c  S  =1U  E  S  sq  n 
5  ^  c3  W   U   ■•  ^  X 

O:^   2   i^l^D 
E;2  3;^-5aH 


S  §  8  5  '^ 
c  j>  ♦.  I'   » 


"'  ^  f  j:  u 

•i  •;:  «5  d  J3*—  „ 

v»    o    3  _£i  o3    P      • 


»5   «   J- 


fe« ; 


s  -f  !  §  B  -b  ^ 
^  ^^  I1  n- 

.5  i;  $,  I  ^  ''^ 

^  I  N  s  ^ 


•5     !>  5 


C     ~     R    W 


f  .Si 


^  ;*si,       •  ri  fi  td  5^  *^  5K    O 


••I         Sv. 

S    ^   •£; 


g  S   o   f!{  O   *i^ 

u    fij    C    r!    '>  O 
'       ».   rt    tj     Z    H  !-0 


"^ 


"^ 


•^ 


O 


a  S  2  '-a  K  t^ 
^^^  s  OK 

3    «    -T    s^    O  y 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         21 

Caslon's  fonts  were  no  doubt  partly  derived.  In  these  old 
fonts,  too,  there  were  more  unusual  and  tied  letters  than  are 
now  common. 

The  black-letter  shown  in  this  specimen  is  heavy  in  its 
larger  sizes,  and  the  capitals  are  awkward  and  overcharged 
— like  Flemish  sixteenth  century  fonts  too  much  elaborated. 
In  the  medium  sizes,  the  types  seem  better.  The  Greek 
characters  would  to-day  be  obscure  because  of  the  number 
of  ligatures.  The  two  fonts  of  music  type  are  those  known 
as  the  "Music  of  the  Huguenots."  The  specimen  ends  with 
many  good  type  "flowers."  The  last  three  still  hold  their 
own,  not  merely  because  they  are  attractive  in  design, 
but  because  they  print  so  well.  This  is  due  to  the  cross- 
hatching  of  the  designs,  which  gives  a  pleasant  tone  and 
variety  of  colour  to  the  ornament,  and  was  intentionally 
employed  to  help  the  presswork. 

Mr.  De  Vinne,  who  attributed  all  these  types  to  Van 
Dyck, — in  the  light  of  which  his  words  should  be  read, — 
says,^  that  "Liberal  allowance  should  be  made  for  the  worn 
types  and  the  bad  printing  of  the  original  specimen-sheet, 
as  well  as  for  some  falling-off",  even  from  this  low  standard, 
in  a  facsimile.  .  .  .  Yet  the  good  form  and  fitting-up  of  the 
Flemish  Black  Letters  are  but  slightly  obscured;  .  ,  .  any 
punch-cutter  might  be  justly  proud  of  them.  The  smaller 
sizes  of  roman  and  italic  make  a  creditable  appearance,  but 
all  of  the  larger  sizes  are  not  so  good :  some  are  really  bad. 
Letters  more  uncouth  than  those  of  the  capitals  of  the 
*" Duhhelde  Augustijn  Kapltaleii*  .  .  .  were  probably  never 
shown  by  any  reputable  type-founder.  Moxon's  tracings  of 
the  Van  Dijck  roman  letter,^  although  rudely  done,  showing 
undue  sharpening  of  the  lower  serifs,  give  a  clearer  idea  of 

'  Historic  Printing  Types,  New  York,  1886,  p.  43. 
^  Moxon's  Meclianick  Exercises,  pis.  11  and  12. 


22  PRINTING  TYPES 

its  peculiarities  of  style  and  of  its  real  merit  than  can  be  had 
from  the  study  of  the  Elzevir  specimen-sheet.  The  general 
effect  of  this  letter  is  shown  to  the  best  advantage  in  the 
larger  t^^pes  of  some  of  the  octavos  of  Daniel  Elzevir.  The 
smaller  types  of  the  duodecimos  are  too  small  to  clearly 
show  the  peculiarities  of  cut.  Van  Dijck  seems  to  have  de- 
signed letters,  with  intent  to  have  them  resist  the  wear  of 
the  press.  The  body-marks  were  firm,  and  the  counters  of 
good  width,  not  easily  choked  with  ink.  Hair  lines  were  few 
and  of  positive  thickness.  The  serifs  were  not  noticeably 
short,  but  they  were  stubby,  or  so  fairly  bracketed  to  the 
body-mark  that  they  could  not  be  readily  gapped  or  broken 
down.  When  printed,  as  much  of  the  Elzevir  printing  was 
done,  with  strong  impression  and  abundance  of  ink,  the 
types  were  almost  as  bold  and  black  as  the  style  now  known 
as  Old  Style  Antique.  This  firmness  of  face  explains  the 
popularity  of  the  so-called  Elzevir  letter.  It  may  not  be 
comely,  but  it  is  legible.  The  letters  may  be  stubby,  but 
they  have  no  useless  lines ;  they  were  not  made  to  show  the 
punch-cutter's  skill  in  truthful  curves  and  slender  lines,  but 
to  be  read  easily  and  to  wear  well." 

Mr.  De  Vinne  appears  oblivious  of  what  seems  so  self- 
evident  to  some  French  writers — that  Van  Dyck  slavishly 
copied  the  design  of  Garamond's  fonts.  Dutch  authorities 
think  differently. 

The  punches  and  matrices  of  the  types  shown  on  the 
specimen-sheet  were  offered  for  sale  in  1681,  and  were 
bought  by  a  Spanish  Jew  named  Athias  —  a  Rabbi  as  well 
as  a  type-founder.  Some  twenty  years  earlier  he  had  em- 
ployed Van  Dyck  to  cut  Hebrew  fonts  which  were  used  in 
a  Hebrew  Bible,  for  which  Athias  was  given  a  medal  and 
a  golden  chain  by  the  States  of  Holland  and  West  Fries- 
land.  In  1683,  the  following  notice  appeared  in  the  Gazette 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         23 

de  Haarlem:  "The  attention  of  the  public  is  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  excellent  and  celebrated  type-foundry  of  the 
late  Christoffel  van  Dyck,  sold  by  the  heirs  of  the  late  D. 
Elzevir,  together  with  other  excellent  matrices,  Greek  as 
well  as  Roman,  brought  together  in  the  lifetime  of  the  said 
Elzevir,  has  been  reorganized  at  Amsterdam.  Address  Jan 
Bus  in  the  house  of  Sr.  Joseph  Athias,  where  he  is  at  work 
throughout  the  day.  The  price  of  the  types  is  the  same  as 
in  the  time  of  Van  Dyck  and  Elzevir."  A  broadside  speci- 
men Svhich  must  have  been  brought  out  about  the  same 
time  shows,  according  to  Blades,  five  fonts  of  titling,  sixteen 
of  roman  and  italic,  eight  of  black-letter,  and  two  of  music-^ 
Upon  Athias's  death  the  foundry  passed  to  a  printer 
named  Schipper ;  then  to  the  Amsterdam  founder  Jan  Ro- 
man. One-half  of  Roman's  collection  was  sold  in  1767  to 
Enschede  of  Haarlem;  the  other  half  to  the  brothers  Ploos 
van  Amstel  of  Amsterdam.  Later  their  portion  was  bought 
by  Enschede,  so  that  practically  all  Van  Dyck's  work  went 
to  the  Haarlem  foundry.  Unfortunately,  the  Enschedes'  un- 
bounded admiration  for  the  tasteless  German  type-cutter 
Fleischman  threw  Van  Dyck's  types  into  the  shade,  and 
their  untoward  end  is  described  on  another  page. 


Ill 

THE  work  of  the  Dutch  press,  outside  that  of  the  Elze- 
virs and  Plantin,  was  not  of  great  interest.  There  were 
three  features,  however,  to  which  attention  should  be  called: 
(l)  The  magnificent  maps  and  atlases  printed  during  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  by  Mercator,  Ortel, 

'  Proeven  van  Letteren  die  gesneden  zijn  door  Wylen  Christoffel  -van  Dijck, 
nvelke  gegoten  nverden  by  Jan  Bus,  ten  huyse  -van  Sr.  Josefih  Athias,  etc.  Bus 
had  a  reputation  in  his  day  as  a  clever  workman. 
'  Blades's  Early  Tyfie  S/iecimen  Books ,  pp.  14,  15. 


24  PRINTING  TYPES 

Waghenaer,  Hondius,  and  the  Blaeus,  which,  quite  apart 
from  their  engraved  plates,  are  imposing  in  their  typog- 
raphy. (2)  The  books  printed  in  French  and  other  lan- 
guages during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 
Some  of  these  were  w^orks,  now  famous,  issued  in  Holland 
in  order  to  escape  the  restrictions  placed  on  the  press  else- 
where— restrictions  that  proved  most  advantageous  to  the 
Netherlands  book-trade.^  (3)  The  illustrated  volumes  pub- 
lished in  the  early  eighteenth  century  by  Bernard  Picart 
and  others — ambitious  pieces  of  type-setting,  which,  though 
heavy  in  effect,  were  magnificent  for  the  period.^ 


During  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  printers  in 
the  Netherlands  employed  a  great  deal  of  gothic  type  of  a 
square,  heavy,  monotonous  cut.  A  few  books  were  printed 
in  a  lettre  batarde^  but  the  black-letter  fonts  that  were  most 
used  were  of  the  lettre  de  forme  family.  A  few  of  these  fatter, 
"blockier"  gothic  types  furnished  an  unfortunate  historical 
precedent  for  the  corpulent  "blacks"  which  disfigured  Eng- 

*  The  small  format  of  some  editions  of  proscribed  books  was  probably  to 
adapt  them  to  convenient  transportation  to  the  public  they  commanded  out- 
side Holland. 

*  Title-pages,  etc.,  of  books  issued  in  the  Netherlands  during  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  (as  well  as  manuscripts  and  incunabula)  are  repro- 
duced in  J.  ten  Brink's  Geschiedenis  der  JVederlandsche  Letter kunde,  Am- 
sterdam, 1897.  See  also  Stockum's  La  Librairie,  V Imfirimerie  et  la  Presse 
en  Hollande  a  travers  Quatre  Slides.  Documents  fiour  servir  d  V Histoire 
de  leurs  Relations  Internationales.  La  Haye,  1910.  This  gives  reproductions 
of  title-pages,  etc.,  of  works  of  foreign  authors  printed  in  Holland.  For  a  guide 
to  some  of  the  best  Dutch  printing,  consult  the  Catalogue  of  the  Exhibition  of 
Old  and  New  Book-Making  in  the  Netherlands,  held  at  The  Hague  and  Am- 
sterdam in  1920  under  the  auspices  of  the  Joan  Blaeu  Society  {Catalogue 
van  de  Tentoonstelling  van  Oude  en  JVieuive  Boekkunst  in  de  JVederlanden: 
Vereeniging  Joan  Blaeu) .  The  catalogue  includes  3 "8  items,  and  is  valuable 
for  titles  of  interesting  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  century  books, 
of  well-printed  volumes  issued  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  of  those  reflect- 
ing modern  tendencies  in  type-cutting  and  book-making  issued  in  recent  years. 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         25 

lish  printing  in  the  early  nineteenth  century.  Along  with 
these  gothic  types,  roman  types  were  used — a  Dutch  vari- 
ant of  Italian  roman  types,  with  the  same  squarish  quality 
in  design  which  marked  their  black-letter  companions.  The 
italic  employed  resembled  the  Aldine  character,  and  with  it 
small  roman  capitals  were  used  according  to  Venetian  tra- 
dition. The  general  effect  of  type  at  this  period  was  remi- 
niscent of  the  fifteenth  century;  indeed,  the  same  general 
forms  persisted  in  Dutch  typography  for  a  long  time  after 
1 600.  Early  Netherlands  books  were  often  decorated  with 
woodcuts,  occasionally  effective,  though  usually  coarse  in  de- 
sign and  execution ;  and  title-pages  often  bore  elaborate  and 
overcharged  borders.  Such  types,  square  in  shape,  closely 
set,  monotonous,  and  arranged  without  much  sense  of  style, 
made  books  which  can  be  readily  recognized  on  the  shelves 
of  a  library;  volumes  too  thick  for  their  height,  in  folio, 
quarto,  and  diminutive  32mo,  mostly  bound  in  vellum, 
which  are  as  unappetizing  in  their  outward  appearance  as 
the  typography  within. 

A  general  idea  of  Netherlands  printing  from  1500  to  1540 
may  conveniently  be  had  by  consulting  the  reproductions  of 
titles  and  text-pages  given  in  Nijhoff's-L'.///t  Typographique 
dans  les  Pays-Bas^  and  I  indicate  a  series  of  plates  from 
it  which  cover  the  different  classes  of  types.  The  square, 
heavy  lettre  de  forme  is  exemplified  in  some  of  the  work  of 
the  Antwerp  printer  Willem  Vorsterman,  whose  product 
is  of  a  high  average — for  instance,  the  title-pages  of  both 

'Wouter  NijhofF,  IJ Art  Tyfiografihique  dans  les  Pays-Bas  (1500-1540). 
Refiroduction  en  Facsimile  des  Caracteres  Tk/fiografihiques,  des  Marques 
d" Imfirimeurs ,  des  Gravures  sur  Bois  et  autres  Ornements  employes  dans 
les  Pays-Bas  entre  les  Annees  MD  et  MDXL.  Avec  JVotices  Critiques  et  Bio- 
grafihiques.  La  Haye,  1902.  In  the  references  to  this  work  which  follow,  the 
numbers  of  the  iJvraisons  in  which  the  loose  facsimiles  were  originally  issued 
are  given,  but  if  the  plates  have  been  collated  and  bound,  these  numbers  can 
be  disregarded. 


26  PRINTING  TYPES 

Old  and  New  Testaments  in  his  Dutch  Bible,  issued  re- 
spectively in  1528  and  1529.  These  plates  show,  too,  the 
borders  used  in  such  books  —  although  these  are  much 
above  the  ordinary  in  design.^  The  same  sort  of  type,  but 
larger  and  finer  in  execution,  was  employed  by  Jan  Seversz. 
in  his  title-page  oi  Die  Crony  eke  van  Holland^  etc.,  of  1517." 
Yet  another  book  that  shows  Dutch  printing  of  the  first 
order  is  the  Delft  edition  of  a  Latin  Psalter  printed  in  1530 
by  Cornells  Henriczoon  Lettersnijder — who  certainly  knew 
his  business."*  His  black-letter  is  very  impressive  and  beau- 
tiful, though  of  a  massive  kind  that  betokens  Dutch  pro- 
venance.^ These  show  Dutch  lettre  de  forme  at  its  best. 
Scarcely  less  good — and  more  characteristic — are  the  types 
of  Jan  Lettersnijder  of  Antwerp  as  used  in  Hoveken  van 
devocien  (c.  1500).^  Still  more  characteristic,  and  much  less 
good,  are  the  pages  from  Nicolas  de  Grave's  1520  and  1529 
editions  of  J.  Boutillier's  Somrne  Ruyrael^  the  Segelijn  van 
Jeruzalem  (1517),  and  Leven  van  St.  Beimard  (1515).^ 

Roman  type  of  this  period  is  finely  displayed  in  the  open- 
ing page  of  a  book  printed  by  Thierry  Martens  of  Alost  at 
Lou  vain  in  1517 — Summx  s.  argurnenta  Legum  Romanorum 
of  P.  Aegidius^ — in  which  the  entire  title  is  set  in  roman 
capitals  of  classical  form.  A  title-page  showing  capital  and 

*  Nijhoff :  Anvers,  Willem  Vorsterman,  IV,  No.  10  {Livraison  3),  and  V, 
No.  11  {Livraison  4). 

^ Ibid.,  Leiden,  Jan  Seversz.,  Ill,  No.  8  {Livraison  3). 
'  In  connection  with  this  man's  work,  the  cursive  character  used  in  his  edi- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  in  Dutch,  printed  at  Delft  in  1524,  is  sufficiently 
unusual  to  reward  attention.  See  Nijhoff:  Delft,  Cornells  Henriczoon  Letter- 
snijder, Nos.  7  and  9  (Livraison  ll). 

*  Nijhoff:  Delft,  Co  rnelis  Henriczoon  Lettersnijder,  V,  No.  15  (Livraisonl?) . 

*  Ibid.,  Anvers,  Jan  Lettersnijder,  I,  Nos.  1-3  (Livraison  8). 

'  Ibid.,  Anvers,  Nicolas  de  Grave,  III,  Nos.  6-9  (Livraison  lO). 
7i6/c?.,' Lou  vain,  Thecdoricus  Martinus  Alostensis,  V,  No.  19  (Livraison 
13). 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         27 

lower-case  letters  appears  in  the  Antwerp  edition  of  Eras- 
mus' De  Contemptii  Miindi,  printed  by  Van  Hoochstraten/ 
Fonts  of  heavier  roman  were  used  in  some  other  books 
printed  by  Thierry  Martens — such  as  the  Condenmatio  Doc- 
triiix  Af.  Lutheri  of  1520,  or  Fischer's  Eversio  Munitionis, 
printed  about  1518,"  or  the  somewhat  better  roman  types 
used  by  Paffraet  at  Deventer  in  1521  and  1525.^  Examples 
of  italic  are  to  be  found  in  a  Leyden  edition  of  Erasmus' 
De  vitando  permtloso  aspectu  of  1538,  printed  by  Pieter  Claes- 
zoon  van  Balen,*  and  in  the  pages  of  Antonio  de  Nebrija's 
Lexicon  Juris  Civilis  of  1527,  printed  at  Antwerp  by  Gra- 
pheus.^  These  examples  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  kind  of  ro- 
man and  italic  types  generally  employed  in  the  Netherlands 
from  1500  to  1550. 

Two  books  in  folio  by  Hubert  Goltz  (Goltzius)  of  about 
this  date  are  interesting.  The  first  is  his  Vivae  Omnium  fere 
Imperatorum  Imagines^  printed  at  Antwerp  in  1557,  and  in 
its  illustrations  showing,  says  an  authority,  "the  first  use  of 
the  copper  plate  in  connection  with  blocks  engraved  for 
chiaroscuro  printing  and  also  the  first  appearance  in  any 
form  of  the  chiaroscuro  as  book  illustration."  ^  Typograph- 
ically it  is  noteworthy  for  its  display  of  italic  types ;  espe- 
cially imposing  in  the  largest  size,^  which  resembles  some 
used  by  John  Day.  The  prefatory  and  final  matter  is  ar- 
ranged with  great  distinction  —  in  capital  letters  mingled 

'  Nijhoff :  Anvers,  Michiel  Hillen  van  Hoochstraten,  XIV,  No.  51  {Livrai- 

son  15) . 

"  Ibid. ,  Louvain,  Theodoricus  Martinus  Alostensis,  II,  Nos.  6,  7,  8  (Liv7'ai- 

son  2) . 

^  3id.,  Deventer,  Albert  Paffraet,  IV,  Nos.  16,  18,  19  (Livraison  2). 

*  Ibid.,  Leiden,  Pieter  Claeszoon  van  Balen,  I,  Nos.  3,  4  (Livraison  15). 

'  3id.,  Anvers,  J.  Grapheus,  II,  Nos.  4,  5  (Livraison  5). 

^  Rudolph  Ruzicka. 

'  Facing  pis.  xli,  xlu,  etc. 


28  PRINTING  TYPES 

with  an  italic  recalling  Fell's  types.  The  second  book  is 
C.  Julius  Cxsar  sive  Historise  Imperatorum  Csesarumgue  Ro- 
manorum  ex  A?itiquis  Numismatibus  Restitutx.  It  was  printed 
at  Bruges  in  1563,  and  is  a  fine  example  of  the  sober  use 
of  some  monumental  roman  types  of  a  style  much  earlier 
than  the  date  of  the  book.  It  is  illustrated  with  copper- 
plates, and  its  engraved  tide-page  and  colophon  are  most 
distinguished. 

Luigi  Guicciardini's  Descrittione  di  Tutti  i  Paesi  Bassi 
was  issued  in  folio  at  Antwerp,  in  1567,  by  G.  Silvius,  royal 
printer.  The  roman  type  in  which  it  is  chiefly  printed  and 
the  italic  used  in  its  prefatory  verse  are  not  unlike  Plantin's 
fonts,  and  the  book  is  interesting  because  it  suggests  that 
Plantin's  style  was  not  so  peculiar  to  him  as  we  are  apt  to 
think.  Except  for  a  copper-plate  map  and  a  view  of  the 
Hotel  de  Ville  at  Antwerp,  the  book  is  illustrated  with  large 
wood-engravings.  The  title-page  and  its  two  following 
leaves  of  dedication,  engraved  on  wood,  are  fine,  and  so  are 
the  double-page  plates :  those  of  Ypres,  Malines,  and  Lou- 
vain  in  particular  being  worth  looking  at.  These  blocks 
were  ultimately  bought  of  Silvius  by  Plantin,  and  are  now 
in  the  Musee  Plantin  at  Antwerp.  On  Silvius'  death  at  Ley- 
den  (where  he  was  printer  to  the  States  of  Holland  and  the 
University),  his  widow  sold  his  material  to  Plantin. 

§2 
J.  Hondius,  the  well-known  Amsterdam  publisher,  brought 
out  in  1611  a  Latin  history  of  that  city  by  Pontanus  — 
Rerum  et  Urbis  Amstelodamensium  Historia.  It  is  printed 
entirely  in  roman  and  italic  types  —  the  latter  the  better  of 
the  two — which  have  the  worthy  but  uninspired  appear- 
ance of  Elzevir  fonts.  There  are  engraved  illustrations  and 
woodcut  initials  —  the  latter  rough  but  attractive.  The  same 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         29 

publisher  about  this  date  printed  a  Dutch  edition  of  this 
book,  set  in  double  column,  in  a  spirited  cut  of  lettre  de 
forme  with  the  usual  italic  and  roman  interspersed.  The 
copper-plate  illustrations  —  unintentionally  diverting — of 
the  Latin  edition  are  used  in  the  Dutch  version.  The  two 
editions  are  interesting  to  compare. 

Samuel  Ampzing's  Beschryvmge  ende  lof  der  Stad  Haer- 
lem  i?i  Holland  (Description  and  Praise  of  the  City  of  Haar- 
lem), and  Pieter  Schrijver's  (Scriverius)  Laure-Crans  voor 
Laurens  Coster  van  Haeriem^  Eerste  Finder  vande  Boeck- 
Druckery^wtve  printed  together  in  a  stout  quarto  at  Haarlem 
by  Adriaen  Rooman  in  1628,  in  a  mixture  of  roman,  italic, 
black-letter,  and  cursive  letter,  in  various  sizes.  I  do  not 
attempt  to  describe  it  except  as  an  unbelievable  jumble  of 
types  not  in  themselves  bad.  Of  the  two  unusual  cursives, 
the  smaller  is  well  displayed  on  pp.  246-256  in  the  first  book 
named,  and  the  larger  in  the  Foor  Reden  to  the  second. 
This  last  work, — "Laurel  Wreath  for  Laurenz  Coster," — 
although  issued  separately,  was  added,  in  enlarged  form,  to 
Ampzing's  book  to  support  his  championship  of  Coster  as 
the  inventor  of  printing.  Plates  of  Coster's  ill-favoured  coun- 
tenance and  of  his  printing-office  enliven  the  treatise. 

The  three- volume  folio  Atlas  JVovus  sive  Descriptio  geo- 
graphica  Totius  Orbis  Terrarum^  by  Mercator  and  Hondius, 
published  at  Amsterdam  by  J.  Jansson  and  H.  Hondius  in 
1638,  and  apparently  printed  by  Hondius,  is  handsome 
typographically,  apart  from  its  maps.  The  text  is  printed 
in  double  column  from  old  style  roman  and  italic  fonts;  and 
woodcut  ornaments  and  initials  are  often  employed.  But 
it  lacks  the  sense  of  style  of  Plantin's  edition  of  the  Atlas 
by  Ortel.  Although  the  text  is  printed  on  the  back  of  the 
engraved  maps,  the  paper  is  so  thick  and  good  that  it  does 
not  matter. 


30  PRINTING  TYPES 

Willem  and  Joan  Blaeu's  jVovus  Atlas^  in  six  enormous 
"atlas  folios,"  is  another  able  performance.  In  an  edition  in 
German,  printed  at  Amsterdam  in  1676,  the  text  is  set  in 
fraktur,  with — alas! — proper  names  in  roman,  and  quota- 
tions in  italic  letter.  But  it  is  a  very  wonderful  achievement, 
all  the  same.  Evelyn,  when  on  a  tour  in  1641  which  seems  to 
have  been  more  or  less  bibliographical,  visited  (besides  the 
establishment  of  "that  indefatigable  person"  Hondius,  men- 
tioned above)  Joan  Janszoon  Blaeu's  shop  in  Amsterdam  to 
buy  maps  and  atlases.  This  was  Blaeu  the  younger,  son  of 
the  better-known  Willem  Janszoon  Blaeu  (1571-1638),  in- 
ventor in  1620  of  an  improved  style  of  printing-press  which 
had  considerable  success  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  England. 
The  elder  Blaeu  had  earlier  been  associated  with  Tycho 
Brahe,  the  Danish  astronomer,  from  whom  he  got  the  idea 
of  making  globes  and  maps.  Blaeu's  new  press  was  intended 
to  surmount  difficulties  in  perfecting  this  work,  for  which 
the  shop  became  famous. 

A  contemporary  account,  describing  the  establishment 
much  as  Evelyn  must  have  seen  it,  tells  us  that  "on  the 
Blumengracht,  near  the  third  bridge,  and  the  third  alley, 
may  be  found  the  greatly  renowned  printing-house  of  John 
Blaeu,  Counsellor  and  Magistrate,  of  this  city.  It  is  fur- 
nished with  nine  type-presses,  named  after  the  nine  Muses, 
six  presses  for  copper-plate  printing,  and  a  type-foundry. 
The  entire  establishment  on  the  canal,  with  the  adjoining 
house,  in  which  the  proprietor  lives,  is  75  feet  in  breadth, 
and  stretches  along  the  east  side  of  a  cross  street  135  feet, 
or  with  the  attached  house  150  feet.  Fronting  on  the  canal 
is  a  room  with  cases  in  which  the  copper-plates  are  kept, 
from  which  the  Atlases,  the  Book  of  the  Cities  of  the  Neth- 
erlands and  of  foreign  countries,  also  the  Mariners'  Atlases 
and  other  choice  books  are  printed,  and  which  must  have 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         31 

cost  a  ton  of  gold.  Next  to  this  first  room  is  a  press-room 
used  for  plate  printing,  and  opening  upon  the  cross  street 
referred  to  above  is  a  place  where  the  tyjDCs,  from  which 
impressions  have  been  made,  are  washed;  then  follows  in 
order  the  room  for  book-printing,  which  resembles  a  long 
hall  with  numerous  windows  on  either  side.  In  the  extreme 
rear  is  a  room  in  which  the  type  and  certain  other  mate- 
rials used  in  printing  are  stored.  Opposite  this  store-room 
is  a  stairway  leading  to  a  small  room  above  which  is  set 
apart  for  the  use  of  the  proofreaders,  where  first  and  sec- 
ond impressions  are  carefully  looked  over,  and  the  errors 
corrected  which  have  been  made  by  the  typesetters.  In  front 
of  this  last  designated  room  is  a  long  table  or  bench  on 
which  the  final  prints  are  placed  as  soon  as  they  are  brought 
from  the  press,  and  where  they  are  left  for  a  considerable 
time.  In  the  story  above  is  a  table  for  the  same  purpose  just 
indicated,  at  the  extreme  end  of  which,  and  over  the  room 
occupied  by  the  proofreaders,  is  the  type-foundry  wherein 
the  letters  used  in  the  printing  of  the  various  languages  are 
moulded. 

"  The  foundation  of  this  splendid  building  was  laid  in 
the  year  1636,  by  John  Blaeu's  oldest  son  Willem  Blaeu, 
and  on  the  13th  of  the.Fall  month  of  the  following  year  the 
printing  establishment  was  here  set  in  order.  The  original 
founder  of  the  printing-house,  who  died  in  the  following 
year,  was  John  Blaeu's  art-loving  father  Willem,  who,  for 
a  considerable  time,  had  been  a  pupil  of  the  great  astrono- 
mer Tycho  Brahe,  whom  he  zealously  followed,  construct- 
ing many  instruments  for  the  advancement  of  astronomi- 
cal studies,  for  the  promotion  of  the  art  of  navigation,  and 
of  other  sciences  of  like  character,  an  interest  in  all  of 
which  he  revived  and  furthered  while  at  the  same  time  he 
made  new  discoveries,  as  has  become  widely  known  from 


32  PRINTING  TYPES 

the  publications  which  have  issued  from  this  printing- 
house."' 

P.  and  J.  Blaeu  printed  at  Amsterdam  in  1698  a  French 
edition  of  Gerard  Brandt's  Life  of  Admiral  de  Ruy ter  — 
La  Vie  de  Michel  de  Ruiter  —  a  more  or  less  commonplace 
performance  of  seven  hundred  folio  pages.  The  book  is  com- 
posed in  a  light  variety  of  old  style  roman,  with  the  numer- 
ous quoted  documents  arranged  in  italic.  It  is  illustrated 
with  large  copper-plates — which,  unlike  the  text,  leave 
nothing  to  be  desired  as  to  incident  and  movement. 

The  name  of  Wetstein,  the  eminent  Amsterdam  printer- 
publisher,  appears  (with  others )  on  the  title-page  of  Hooft's 
Nedeiiandsche  Histonen,,  printed  in  1703.  Its  types  are  char- 
acteristic Dutch  fonts  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  more 
lively  than  those  in  most  contemporary  work.  The  italic 
used  has  some  delightful  characters.  Except  for  copper- 
plates, the  volume  has  no  decorations  save  some  nine-line 
Dutch  "bloomers,"  used  at  the  beginning  of  each  of  the 
thirteen  books  into  which  the  History  is  divided.  They 
"  bloom  "  energetically ! 

Peter  the  Great,  on  his  last  stay  in  Holland,  from  1716 
to  1717,  was  fired  with  the  idea  of  improving  printing  in 
Russia,  and  he  made  various  endeavours  to  this  end.  The 
history  of  the  only  effort  that  succeeded — and  that  but  par- 
tially— is  a  curious  incident  in  the  annals  of  Dutch  printing. 
There  had  been  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury a  Dutch  Bible  printed  at  the  command  of  the  States- 
General  of  the  United  Provinces,  and  taking  this  for  a  basis, 

*  Filips  von  Zesen's  Beschreibung  der  Stadt  Amsterdam,  1664,  pp.  215,  216 ; 
quoted  in  E.  L.  Stevenson's  Willem  Janszoon  Blaeu,  Hispanic  Society,  New 
York,  1914.  For  a  list  of  the  principal  geographical  works  of  the  elder  Blaeu, 
see  Bibliography  in  tlie  latter  book. 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         33 

the  Czar  ordered  a  Bible  arranged  in  double  column;  the 
Dutch  text  (entirely  in  capital  letters)  on  the  right,  the  other 
column  being  left  blank  for  a  Slav  translation  of  the  Dutch 
text — to  be  printed  later  in  Russia  from  Slavic  types,  cut 
and  cast  for  this  purpose  by  Clerk  and  Voskens,  the  Am- 
sterdam type-founders.  The  New  Testament,  in  two  folio 
volumes,  was  printed  at  The  Hague  in  1717,  and  the  Old 
Testament,  in  four  volumes,  at  Amsterdam.  It  appears  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  edition  sent  to  Russia  was  lost,  and 
that  only  a  few  copies  of  the  New  Testament  ever  were  com- 
pleted by  the  addition  of  the  Slav  text.  Only  four  copies  are 
now  known.^ 

The  quarto  edition  of  Brieven  .  .  .  den  Johan  de  Witt^ 
issued  by  H.  Scheurleer  at  The  Hague  in  1723,  has  a  con- 
gested red  and  black  title-page,  and  apart  from  this  is  a 
perfectly  straightforward  quarto,  set  from  heavy,  awkward 
old  style  types,  moderately  well  printed,  on  moderately  good 
paper,  perfectly  respectable,  and  as  uninteresting  as  all  this 
sounds.  Wetstein  and  Luchtmans — both  good  names  in 
Dutch  printing  and  publishing — brought  out  at  Amster- 
dam and  Leyden  in  1738  a  quarto  Livy  in  seven  volumes — 
a  monumental  work,  and,  like  most  monuments,  depress- 
ing. The  type  of  the  text  is  a  very  square  cut  of  old  style, 
the  notes  a  colourless  variety  of  Elzevir  types.  The  crowded 
title,  the  allegorical  frontispiece,  the  author's  portrait,  the 
preface  in  enormous  italic,  and  page  after  page  of  crowded 
text,  make  these  two  volumes  of  something  over  one  thou- 
sand pages  each,  a  very  sleepy  affair. 

Bernard  Picart,  a  French  engraver  and  seller  of  prints 
who  resided  at  Amsterdam  after  1710,  contributed  a  deco- 
rative note  to  early  eighteenth  century  Dutch  printing.  An 

'  Stockum's  La  Librairie,  V Imfirimerie  et  la  Presse  en  Hollande  a  trovers 
Quatre  Siicles,  facs.  153,  154. 


34  PRINTING  TYPES 

example  of  his  work  is  the  (Euvres  Diverses  de  M.  de 
Fontenelle,  published  in  1728  at  The  Hague  by  Gosse  and 
Neaulme.  The  book  is  full  of  Picart's  exquisite  engraved 
decorations,  and  is  (except  for  the  tiresome  type  border  on 
e\'ery  page)  printed  from  old  style  types  more  French  than 
Dutch  in  effect.  Another  more  imposing  and  more  fa- 
miliar "Picart"  book  is  the  folio  Temple  des  Muses,  pub- 
lished at  Amsterdam  by  Zacharie  Chatelain  in  1733,  the 
year  of  Picart's  death.  Apart  from  the  engravings  and  the 
series  of  fine  frameworks  around  them  —  so  good  that  they 
have  been  often  utilized  by  later  printers  and  decorators  — 
the  typography  is  extremely  handsome.  The  fonts  used  — 
of  a  bold,  massive  sort — are  impressive  in  effect;  and  the 
composition,  too,  is  adequate,  and  very  much  in  the  key  of 
the  pretentious  plates  {jig.  208).  Such  books  were,  I  sup- 
pose, bought  for  their  pictures,  and  were  intended  as  luxu- 
rious pieces  of  book-making.  Still  another  illustrated  Picart 
work  is  the  Ceremonies  et  Coutumes  Religieuses  des  Nations 
de  tons  les  Peiiples  dii  Monde  in  eleven  volumes,  begun  in 
1723,  of  which  an  English  edition  was  published. 

Johannes  Enschede  and  Jan  Bosch  of  Haarlem  very  ap- 
propriately printed  G.  W.  van  Oosten  de  Bruyn's  De  Stad 
Haarlem  en  haare  Geschiedenissen  in  1765.  It  is  not  much 
of  a  performance.  The  dull,  light,  roman  and  italic  types 
have  lost  all  colour  and  spirit  {Jig.  209).  Some  black-letter 
(possibly  Fleischman's)  is  here  and  there  used  for  verse. 
Then,  too,  the  composition  of  displayed  and  prefatory  matter 
is  tasteless  and  pretentious.  As  a  whole,  the  book, — a  folio, 
—  weak  as  it  is  in  its  types,  is  yet  interesting,  because 
showing  new  tendencies  in  printing. 

The  eighteenth  century  Dutch  press  brought  out  a  great 
many  famous  books  which  v,ere  prohibited  or  in  danger 
of  suppression  in  France.  These  are  often  good  examples  of 


^ 

o 


<:i 


•  *>>^ 


^ 
^ 

^ 


S5* 


^^^^ 


^ 


P4 


o 


•={    S?     i-t    d    3     X!     C2 

^    Oh  O    O    3    3    O 

.     TdL    Y{    ^    ^    ^ 


•— -•  ;-^  CO  rrt       ^ 

<U       C/5  O  H  Sfc.S. 

:-(   (D  F^  u  ?^^;r7 

,<L^     S  e/5  O  *-*  ^ 


,<L^     S  e/5     O 

V.    P-!  .^      U      C      CD 

w^  ^n3  .H.y 

i^       f-4  <U       i-l    »--H    ^ 


•0  1       ><       <J 


a*-        •  ^-^ 


rN  ^  nd    g  ^  .S 
u   g    ^    bO  ^    g 


TO  »-=H  qj  j.=M  ^^ 

'^     w  c^  M  s  (L> 

^  •;::;  (u  ^  3  2-> 

<oi  3  S  »H  5 


CO 
CO 


-§ 


^ 


■^ 


E^ 


"^ 


00 

O 


ci     O     U>     <l>     ^"^     ,       S^_^     KrNT^     rt     ^     h 


>  <.     C       >'^      Br^-6       P 


a 


>^-^.  z.  P.^  ^nu.  bi^-r.  ^^"^-^  B^      ^ 


cd    ^    <l^    5-H    X    c3    <L>    J^     r^^C>-  ' — '    CJ       ^1=^ 


cd^a^aogg>.3c:^gS^^        -^ 
^  N  O    ^    ^    ^    bJDV*^    cj  .i=i      '^  O  rrj    '-'  g 


!S 


^-O        ^"Z.^r^  ^^-^^^        §e^O^ 

bJDc3gpG|sj:;^c:^^ffi^,^g^       ^ 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         35 

current  Dutch  typography,  though  the  student  may  easily 
be  misled  by  Dutch  imprints  on  work  produced  elsewhere, 
as  in  the  first  edition  of  Voltaire's  Hemiade.  Books  actu- 
ally printed  in  Holland  were  the  first  editions  of  Voltaire's 
Elemens  de  la  Philosophie  de  Neuton^  Amsterdam,  1 738,^  and 
La  Bible  enfin  Expliquee  (dated  London,  1776);^  I'Abbe 
Prevost's  Manon  Lescaut^  1731  and  1753;*  Montesquieu's 
Causes  de  la  Grandeur  des  Romains  et  de  leur  Decadence^ 
1734;^  Rousseau's  L,a  Nouvelle  Heldise,  1761,  and  the 
Emile  and  Contrat  Social  of  1762."  All  of  these  are  respec- 
table pieces  of  printing  from  old  style  types ;  neither  better 
nor  worse  than  the  average  typography  of  the  time. 


IV 

FOURNIER  le  jeune,  in  speaking  of  contemporary 
Dutch  foundries,  says  that  "Holland,  having  made 
printing  one  of  the  principal  features  of  its  commerce, 
erected  with  care  and  expense  several  celebrated  foundries. 
At  Amsterdam,  Dirk  Voskens,  the  celebrated  engraver  and 
founder  of  that  city,  set  up  a  type-foundry  at  the  end  of  the 
last  century.  His  types  are  round  in  form,  in  the  manner 
of  our  great  masters,  and  very  well  engraved.  This  foundry 
has  passed  to  his  widow  and  to  the  Sieur  Zonen.^  Another 
celebrated  foundry  at  Amsterdam  was  established  by  Chris- 
tophe  van  Dyck,  also  an  engraver,  and  has  now  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  M.  Jean  Bus.  A  third  foundry  established  in 
the  same  town,  not  less  excellent  than  the  two  preceding,  is 
that  of  Isaac  van  der  Putte.  All  three  are  well  stocked  \\'ith 
characters  of  different  kinds,  particularly  with  the  Flemish 

'  Stockum,  fac.  161.  "  Ibid.,  fac.  163.  '  Ibid.,  fac.  164. 

*  Ibid.,  facs.  171,  172.  '  Ibid.,  fac.  174.  ^ Md.,  facs.  195-198. 

i.e.,  and  her  sons.  Foumier  mistook  the  Dutch  word  "zonen"  for  a  proper 
name. 


36  PRINTING  TYPES 

character,  which  has  been  very  much  used  in  the  Nether- 
lands but  which  is  now  being  abandoned.  At  Haarlem,  M. 
Rudolph  Wetstein,  printer  at  Amsterdam  and  learned  in 
types,  having  inherited  some  punches  of  Greek  characters 
which  G.  Wetstein,  his  father,  had  cut  for  him  at  Geneva, 
added  types  to  his  foundry  engraved  by  Sr.  J.  M.  Fleisch- 
man,  a  very  clever  type-cutter.  After  the  death  of  M.  Wet- 
stein, which  occurred  in  1742,  Messieurs  Isaac  and  Jean 
Enschede,  brothers,  bought  this  foundry  in  1 743  and  took 
it  to  Haarlem  to  form  a  complete  typographical  establish- 
ment in  conjunction  with  the  printing-house  they  had  there. 
This  foundry  has  received  very  considerable  accessions 
through  the  work  and  talent  of  Sr.  Fleischman,  mentioned 
above,  who  is  in  their  employ.  At  The  Hague,  Sieurs  R.  C. 
Alberts  and  H.  Vytwerf  established,  about  1730,  a  foundry 
for  which  a  part  of  the  types  were  cut  by  J.  M.  Schmidt, 
a  talented  type-cutter.  At  Antwerp  there  is  an  old  foundry 
which  has  been  celebrated  for  a  long  time.  It  was  set  up  by 
Christophe  Plantin,  the  accompHshed  printer,  about  1561. 
He  went  to  France,  to  buy  types  at  the  administrator's  sale 
of  the  Garamond  foundry.  Guillaume  Le  Be  also  sold  types 
to  him,  and  he  had  other  types  cut  by  Henri  du  Tour,^  of 
Ghent,  then  living  in  Paris.  Moretus,  Plantin's  son-in-law, 
having  inherited  it,  it  came  through  his  descendants  to  M. 
Moretus,  the  type-founder  and  printer,  who  owns  it  to-day. 
This  foundry  has  greatly  lost  prestige  through  lack  of  em- 
ployment, or  by  the  ignorance  of  some  of  those  through 
whose  hands  it  has  passed.  Another  Antwerp  foundry  be- 
longed to  M.  Balthazar  von  Wolffchaten.  In  Holland  there 
still  exists  the  Athias  foundry,  called  the  Jewish  foundry ; 
and  at  Leyden  that  of  Blokmar,  and  one  at  [belonging  to  ?] 
Blaeu." 

*  Van  der  Keere  the  younger. 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         37 

Plantin's  types  and  Van  Dyck's  characters,  both  men- 
tioned by  Fournier,  have  been  discussed.  The  first  still  re- 
main at  the  Plantin  Museum.  The  second  were  finally  ac- 
quired by  the  Enschedes.  The  Enschede  foundry  at  Haar- 
lem is  one  of  the  most  interesting  establishments  in  Europe, 
and  is  a  "descendant"  of  the  oldest  foundries  in  Holland  and 
of  ancient  foundries  in  Basle  and  Geneva.  Begun  in  1703, 
and  flourishing  to-day,  it  possesses  probably  the  best  col- 
lection of  ancient  types,  in  private  hands,  in  the  world.  Be- 
sides portions  of  the  Athias  and  Wetstein  foundries,  it 
includes  material  from  those  of  Dirk  Voskens,  Blaeu,  Van 
der  Putte,  Ploos  van  Amstel,  Elzevir,  and  others — almost 
every  establishment  mentioned  by  Fournier.  Some  of  its 
types  date  from  the  fifteenth  century.  Had  not  many  of  Van 
Dyck's  matrices  been  destroyed,  it  could  have  reproduced  in 
type  any  Dutch  book  from  the  fifteenth  century  to  our  own. 
Its  proprietors  have  been,  from  the  first,  learned  men,  and 
adepts  in  their  work. 

Fleischman,  a  German,  was  employed  by  the  Enschedes 
in  the  eighteenth  century  to  cut  types  for  their  foundry,  and 
his  signature  is  found  beneath  many  fonts  shown  in  their 
specimen-books.  In  his  hands  their  output  was  somewhat 
changed,  though  not  much  bettered.  His  types  are  singu- 
larly devoid  of  style,  and  usually  show  a  drift  toward  the 
thinner,  weaker  typography  which  was  coming  in  Holland 
as  everywhere  else.  But  Fleischman's  work  was  much  the 
fashion  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  it  made  such  excellent 
fonts  as  Van  Dyck's  appear  hopelessly  obsolete.  In  1810, 
when  Didot  type  was  the  mode.  Van  Dyck's  matrices  and 
types  were,  without  much  thought,  thrown  into  the  melting- 
pot —  a  "gesture"  no  doubt  regretted  by  later  members 
of  the  Enschede  family. 

Various  books  and  broadside  specimens  of  types  and 


38  PRINTING  TYPES 

ornaments  were  published  by  the  Enschedes.  One  of  the 
earliest  books  was  Xht  Epreuve  des  Caracteres^  qui  se  fondent 
da?is  la  Nouvelle  FonderiedeLettres  d^ Isaac  et  Jean  Enschede 
a  Haarlem.  Augmentee  ^ perfectionee  jusqiHa  VAn  1744.  The 
preface  alkides  to  the  abiUties  of  Rudolph  Wetstein  as  a 
printer  and  type-founder,  and  mentions  that  the  Enschedes 
bought  his  foundry  in  1743  ;  Wetstein  having  died  the  year 
before.  The  Greek  types  are  mentioned  with  special  pride; 
and  the  deep  cutting  of  counters,  and  the  sohd  way  in  which 
the  types  are  constructed  to  escape  wear,  are  emphasized. 
The  roman  and  italic  types  shown  are  all  old  style.  In  1768, 
the  Enschedes  published  an  elaborate  specimen  called  Proef 
van  Letteren,  IVelke  gegooten  worden  in  de  Nieuwe  Haei'- 
lemsche  Lettergietery  van  J.  Enschede^  prefaced  by  a  portrait 
of  Enschede  and  other  engravings.  An  introduction,  dated 
Haarlem,  1768,  and  signed  by  J.  Enschede,  is  printed  in  a 
very  ugly  cursive  script  letter  {fig.  210) — a  fearful  decline 
from  the  splendid  cursive  fonts  in  use  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  earlier.  This  is  followed  by  a  portrait  of  J.  M.  Fleisch- 
man,  their  type-cutter. Then  begins  a  series  of  types — capi- 
tal letters  in  roman  and  italic  of  a  very  Dutch  and  ugly  cut, 
a  series  of  shaded  capital  letters,  and  a  great  variety  of  faces 
of  roman  and  italic  types,  in  some  of  which  the  size  of  the 
body  of  lower-case  letters  is  unduly  large  in  proportion  to 
the  capitals.  Many  of  the  types  that  we  come  upon  which 
look  more  "modern"  (some  of  them  being  as  we  should  now 
say  "condensed")  were  cut  by  Fleischman  —  whose  name 
appears  beneath  them.  He  uniformly  extracted  all  interest 
from  his  fonts,  partly  through  lightening  the  cut,  which 
gave  monotony  of  colour,  and  partly  by  his  large,  round 
lower-case  letters,  made  more  rolling  in  effect  by  shorten- 
ing the  descenders  in  a  very  modern  way  {^fig.  21 1).  The 
smaller  types  are  extremely  dull  in  colour,  though  here  and 


4 


*i 


^yc&tcnfchapts^&n  <u&n   ni&r  n&t  t^'e&ac  ^   ^^oor 

&n. 


i&rh 


If 


\]0 


I* 


IX 


I 

210.  .Strz/^f  7z//?e:  Enschede^s  Proef  van  Letteren^  Haarlem^  1768 


Cf.cJ^clir&e/y&n     QJ cnri^t  j       aoor     wuC&n^      o- 

SMecr    J^OASV  MJGm;^&£ 

cn  JLcynj^aUen  J^cit&r-QJ t&7?vp'eZJ^nuo-cr  j  dl& 
cr  ooit  in  o-&  yyac/rcid  aeAv^&eJ^  is  .  en  !|V 
moaeCij.fi  it,ome7t  z^aC j  in  1768  y-oCeinoiat ^  {^^(i 
z^iMio-e  t^un  Caatik^e  ohon/t-  /Ver'KJtuK  y-oor  deeze 
U^etteo^aict&ru  ^  en  oe  tcvat4ke  ooor  ii&m  ae= 
Itijteerae  CJYvatrzpzen.  /^mt  UYaam  en  dhon-ft 
■tat  J  oaor  z^une  uitmu7tte7ioe  <^L^etie7^e7t  .  oie 
ten  aetale  y-tzn  ralm  zey-entla,  anaerj^-cneldene 
Q>' cnriTten  &ia  in  ae  Ub(zarCe7n-vcne  °L^etter= 
ai-eteru  Seylnden  j  hcv  yertoop-  y-an  ye&le 
(heu^we7t  j  710-a  door  de  C^eceerae  /Vaereld  rnet 
rae4?t  yerjneCd  'woro-e7i. 

^  -1 


m 

10" 


^  ><x>c><>ck>c>c>c>c><>c>c>c<>ck>oc<xx>ck><xxxxxxx>^^  5 

'^'^  ,         ^i 

x  Defcendiaan  Romein,  Eerfte  Schrift.  X^ 

X  Fr.  Philofophie  RomaiK.  y  ^ 

\^  Engl.  Smal  Pica  Roman. 

X  Hoogd.  Deffendian  Antigua. 

A 

5  II  y  a  des  gens  qui  les  elliment  beaucoup;quelques 

A  Proteftans  memes  les  louent.  Mr.  Arnoldus  indique 

X  plufieurs  PalTages  des  Ecrivains  Cathoiiques  qui  ont 

\  admird  Rusbroch.     Mais  il  ne  devoit  pas  mettre  de 

^  ce  nombre  Francois  Svvertius.  Apparemment  ce  qui 

X  I'a  brouill(^  efb  de  s'etre  fouvenu  qu'il  y  a  un  Livre 

\  intitule  Athense  Batav^  ,  &c.  ffl  ffl  ffi  ffi  A  B  C  D  E 
FGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVUWX  YZ:?iE 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVUWXYZiE 

1234567  89o§*t! 

J.  M.  Fleifchman  fculpfit.  1734. 

Defcendiaan  Romein,  Tweede  Schrift. 

At  etiam  literas,  quas  me  fibi  mifilTe  diceret,  re- 
citavit  homo  &  humanitatis  expers,  &  vitae  com- 
munis ignarus.  Quis  enim  unquam,qui  paulum  mo- 
do  bonomm  confuetudinem  noifet,  literas  ad  fe  ab 
amico  milTas ,  ofFenfione  aliqua  interpofita ,  in  me- 
dium protuHt,  palamque  recitavit?  Quid  ell  aliud, 
toUerere  h  vita  vitse  focietatem  ,  quam  tollere  amit 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV 

wxYZiE.    1234567890.  g; 

J.  M.  Fleifchman  fculpCt.  1753.  X  ^^ 

Laatfte  Defcendiaan  Romein,  Derde  Schrift.         0^ 

Imprimis  Marcum  Tullium  opponebat, cuius  \^d^ 

Oratio  optima  fertur  elTe  quse  maxima.  Plerifque  enim  v  ^^ 

orationibus  longiore  traftu  vis  qu^dam  &  pondus  ac-  O^' 

cedit.  Utque  corpori  ferrum.  Sic  oratio  animo  non  ic-  x  j 

tu  magis  quam  mora  imprimitur.  Videmus ,  ut  ftatuas  x  V^ 

figna ,  piduras ,  hominum  denique  multorumque  ani-  \  ^ 

malium  formas ,  arborum  etiam ,  fi  modo  fmt  decor^e,  X  ^ 

Nihil  magis ,  quam  amplitudo  commendet :  idem  ora-  v  ^ 

tionibus  evenit :  quinetiam  voluminibus  autorita- AB  t  ^ 

CDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ^J."  x^^ 

ACDEHILM  N  OPSTUY   I761.  Y  ^V 

J.  M.  Fleifchman  fculpfit.  1761.  a  ^JJt 

211.  FldschmarCs  Roman  Types  cut  in  1734,  1753,  and  1761 
EnschedPs  Proefvan  Letteren.,  Haarlem.,  1768 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         39 

there  we  find  fonts  with  a  good  deal  of  movement,  cut  by 
Van  Dyck.  Fleischman's  black-letter  {Jig.  212)  is  tortured 
and  fanciful,  and  does  not  stand  comparison  with  Van 
Dyck's  simpler  and  finer  black-letter,  still  less  with  early 
Flemish  gothic  fonts.  Fleischman's  music,  both  in  round 
notes  and  square,  is  also  shown.  The  caractere  de  finance.,  an 
unattractive  script,  was  cut  by  Rosart.  Beyond  these  faded- 
looking  characters  comes  a  page  of  fine  old  civilite  {fig.2l3). 
There  is  an  interesting  collection  of  Greek  fonts,  and  the 
assortment  of  ligatured  characters  which  supplement  them 
should  be  examined.  There  are  Arabic,  Hebrew,  Armenian, 
and  other  exotic  types  by  various  hands,  and  the  specimen 
closes  with  ornaments  which  are  mostly  flat  renderings  of 
current  English  and  French  designs.  Every  page  in  the 
book  is  surrounded  by  type  borders,  many  of  them  ingen- 
iously contrived.  A  supplement  shows  newer  fonts  added  to 
the  foundry  between  1768  and  1773,  which  are  not  im- 
portant. Two  pages  of  splendid  old  Dutch  black-letter  fonts 
{figs.  45  a?id  4<6)  and  a  folding  view  of  the  Enschede  foun- 
dry at  Haarlem  close  a  representative  eighteenth  century 
Dutch  specimen. 

Charles  Enschede's  Fonderies  de  Caracteres  et  lew  Mate- 
riel dans  les  Pays-Bas  du  XV^  an  XIX^  Siecle  contains  every- 
thing in  the  early  Enschede  specimen-books,  and  reproduces 
interesting  types  from  the  Rosart,  Decellier,  and  many  other 
foundries.  No  other  book  on  Dutch  types  is  so  valuable,  and 
so  complete.  In  illustrating  it,  the  author  had  the  enormous 
advantage  of  his  own  collection  of  types,  and  many  of  the 
examples  are  printed  from  them.  He  shows  not  only  pages 
of  type  in  mass,  but  also  alphabets  of  capitals  and  lower-case 
letters,  and  th.e  unusual  "sorts,"  of  which  there  were  many 
in  Dutch  fonts.  For  instance,  in  the  civilite  cut  by  Van  der 
Keere,  which  was  purchased  by  the  Enschedes  from  PIoos 


40  PRINTING  TYPES 

van  Amstel  in  1799,  the  type  is  first  displayed  as  it  appears 
in  Van  Hout's  specimen.  In  an  analysis  of  this  font,  its  capi- 
tal letters,  lower-case  letters  for  the  middle  of  words,  and 
letters  to  be  used  at  the  ends  of  words,  or  phrases,  are  ex- 
hibited; together  with  double  letters,  punctuation,  numerals, 
ligatured  initials  and  medials,  and  final  ligatures,  with  six 
ligatured  forms  of  en,  et,  and  in.  This  gives  some  idea  of  how 
thoroughly  the  work  is  done.  Ornamental  initials,  deco- 
rations, and  typographical  borders  are  treated  with  equal 
fullness  and  completeness,  and  illustrated  by  a  marvellous 
Series  of  reproductions. No  one  who  does  not  know  this  book 
can  know  much  about  Dutch  printing  from  1500  to  1800. 

A  final  specimen-book  to  be  discussed  is  that  of  a  certain 
Jacques  Frangois  Rosart  (1714-1777),  a  native  of  Namur. 
He  seems  to  have  been  self-taught,  and  to  have  established 
himself  at  Haarlem  as  type-founder  in  a  small  way,  when 
about  twenty  years  old.  The  establishment  of  the  Enschede 
foundry  there  was  a  blow  to  him,  although  he  cut  many 
fonts  for  Enschede  and  so  gained  valuable  experience.  He 
thought,  rightly  or  wrongly,  that  the  Enschedes  treated 
him  shabbily  and  unduly  favoured  his  rival,  Fleischman. 

The  dedication  of  Rosart's  specimen  is  printed  in  one  of 
his  disagreeable  script  fonts,  somewhat  like  that  used  for  the 
introduction  to  the  Enschede  specimen.  In  an  address  "to 
amateurs  of  the  art  of  prinUng,"  Rosart  observes  in  a  some- 
what acid  manner  that  he  does  not  praise  the  hardness  of 
his  type-metal,  nor  the  depth  of  his  counters,  as  some  claim- 
ants do,  who  wish  to  make  a  great  deal  out  of  nothing. 
For  printers  whom  he,  Rosart,  has  had  the  honour  to  serve, 
know^  very  well  the  quality  of  his  types !  And  he  adds  that 
he  cannot  conceal  his  surprise  that  the  Enschedes  in  prais- 
ing Fleischman  have  forgotten  to  name  the  Artist  who  has 
brought  honour  to  their  foundry  by  supplying  it  with  a 


M  "^  Paragon  Duits.  W} 

^  Hoogd.  Text  Fraiiur.  ^ 


aer  na  fnmmige  bmm  1 

6faulu^t0t25arnana|:  \ 

3!aEt  nn^  taeberDm  mcfien/ ; 

I  €n  nnfE  25?nEtiEr^  fiEfoEcrtEn  j 

I  tap  tiE^  iEEitn  JBn0?&  tiEr*  j 
I  feontifst  gEBfiEn  Qde  fn  ficg 


J.  M.  Fleifchman  fculpfit.  1744. 


Text  Duyts. 

Hoogd.  Paragon  FraSlur, 


y^ 


tHet  1^  (J^obt  trie  in  on^  taerftt  get  taf {^ 
ten/  €n  get  balfijengen  na  fgn  goe&t  S 
i  taclfictoen.  ^herfeeffietaooj&e&e  m 
#  ®u&e  iSemar  tagmo  al&n^  ^ept  f 
t  ^egenatsea5o&^fiomton^tioo?€n  ^ 
I  maaftt  &at  tag  taillen ;  €n  fii  faolgt  ^ 
g  on^  mmaaftt&at  tag  fionnen.  $1125  C  i 

?^  J.  M.  Fleifchman  fculpfit.  1744.  Jfe^ 

212.  Fleischman'' s  Black-letter:  Enschedfs  Proef  van  Letteren 
Haarlem^  1768 


h  ^  Text  Oud  Gefchreeven.  ^  ';j 


i*.^  Auguftijn  Oud  Gefchreeven.  MA 


?^S5  Dit  laatftc  Gefchreeven  Schrift  is  gefneclen  voor  den  vermaarden  Boekdruk-      ?^  M 

U,  w       ker  Chriftoflel  Plantyn  te  Antwcrpen,  door  Aineet  Tavernier,  Letterfnyder.      ^jJ> 


213.  Seventeenth  Century  Chziit^:  EnschedPs  Proef  van  Letteren 
Haarlem^  1768 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         41 

number  of  types — calling  Fleischman  the  foremost  type- 
cutter  of  the  century,  to  the  prejudice  of  persons  whose 
talents  are  not  yet  much  known,  but  who  (it  is  to  be  hoped) 
will  shortly  make  them  so. 

There  is  something  pathetic  about  Rosart's  book.  It  is  not 
very  well  executed.  The  capital  letters  with  which  it  starts 
out  are  a  little  extreme  in  the  delicacy  of  their  serifs  and  in 
the  thickness  and  thinness  of  contrasting  lines.  Three  alpha- 
bets of  flowered  letters  (detestably  displayed)  were  cut  by 
Fournier  le jeune  of  Paris!  Of  the  upper  and  lower-case 
types,  not  much  is  to  be  said.  They  are  of  the  Dutch  taste 
of  the  day;  but  the  italics  are  more  elegant  than  most  of 
those  of  the  period.  As  the  types  become  smaller,  the  bodies 
seem  out  of  proportion  to  the  height  of  the  capital  letters, 
and  in  these  smaller  sizes  there  are  certainly  many  bad 
fonts.  His  music  characters  and  plain-song  notation  are  both 
shown.  The  caractere  de  jinance  {fig.  214),  Rosart  tells  us, 
he  engraved  in  1753  to  be  printed  with  the  music  types 
which  he  offered  to  the  public  in  1750,^  "as,"  he  adds,  "the 
whole  city  of  Haarlem  can  certify"  {Jig.  215).  Some  black- 
letter,  some  Greek,  and  a  beautiful  cut  of  civilite  engraved 
by  "the  late  Grandjant  [Granjon]  at  Paris"  complete  the 
specimen  of  types,  and  then  come  pages  of  ornaments  {Jig. 
216),  among  which  the  unpleasant  marrow-bones,  scythes, 
skulls,  and  crossed  spades — which  appear,  too,  in  other  con- 
temporary "specimens" — leave  no  doubt  about  the  kind  of 
notification  they  were  to  decorate !  Some  of  the  simpler  or- 
naments are  pretty,  but  I  think  were  inspired  by  Fournier. 

^  These  music  types  were  the  earhest  typographic  rendering  of  the  round 
music  notes  which,  up  to  that  time,  had  appeared  only  in  engraved  music. 
Fournier,  Breitkopf,  and  Enschede  produced  music  types  of  Hke  design,  with 
mechanical  improvements  of  varying  degree,  respectively  in  1754,  1756, 
and  1764.  For  a  discussion  of  the  rival  claims  to  priority  of  production,  see 
Ch.  Enschede's  Fonderies  de  Caracteres  et  leur  Materiel,  etc.,  pp.  241-245. 


42  PRINTING  TYPES 

In  I759,Rosart  left  for  Brussels,  where, under  the  patron- 
age of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  he  established  a  foundry.  He 
died  May  26,  1777,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two,  leaving  sev- 
eral children.  A  son,  who  was  also  a  reputable  type-cutter, 
did  not  succeed  to  his  father's  foundry.  In  1779,  Rosart's 
music  characters,  matrices,  and  punches  were  sold  with 
the  rest  of  his  collection,  and  were  acquired  by  a  widow 
named  Decellier,  of  Brussels.^  Rosart's  priority  in  adapt- 
ing the  design  of  engraved  music  notes  to  typography  will 
always  give  him  a  modest  immortality. 

To  round  out  properly  the  subject  of  eighteenth  century 
Dutch  types,  consult  the  specimen  issued  by  the  brothers 
Ploos  van  Amstel  of  Amsterdam,  of  1784,  and  its  supple- 
ment issued  about  1790 ;  the  specimen  of  J.  de  Groot,  pub- 
lished at  The  Hague  in  1791,  which  contains  some  of  the 
Rosart  material,  and  that  issued  by  Harmsen  &  Co.  at  Am- 
sterdam at  about  the  same  period — "necessary  where  they 
may  be  had."  The  most  interesting  of  these  types  and  or- 
naments, however,  are  beautifully  reproduced  in  Enschede's 
monumental  Fondenes  des  Caracteres.  Those  who  are  curious 
about  the  declension  of  excellence  in  late  eighteenth  century 
Dutch  types  may  refer  to  that  remarkable  book. 

M.  Enschede,  speaking  of  this  period,  says  that  "the 
taste  of  the  public  changed,  and  in  a  manner  which  one 
could  not  approve  of.  The  art  of  the  type-founder  retro- 
graded from  all  points  of  view.  .  .  .  The  French  Revolu- 
tion, which  overturned  so  entirely  the  old  order  of  things, 
brought  nothing  better  in  place  of  it  to  our  art,  and  the  as- 
sortment of  types  by  Fleischman  .  .  .  became,  as  if  by  en- 

^The  Rosart  specimen  described  was  probably  put  out  by  J.  F.  Rosart  at 
Brussels  about  1761.  Madame  Decellier  in  1 779  issued  a  specimen  entitled 
Ejireuve  des  Caracteres  de  la  Fonderie  de  la  Veuve  Decellier,  successeur  de 
Jacques- Franqois  Rosart.  Troisieme  edition  augmentee.  A  Bruxelles,  Rue 
ditte  Finckt,  /ir'is  du  Marche  aux  Grains. 


DOUBLE  DESENDIAAN 
OU   PHILOSOPHIE 

CARACTERE  DE  FINANCE 

Ttom  unir ,  a/^-oo  ^  S-e/n&dlctlo'ii  da  C^d^ 

mas  a^ons  ^'donncm'^&  "^om  commtml- 

a  2)lnianc/i& fyt'O-cnam. 

5Vai^  nous  jf(aMon6  ,  ^ue  ^if-ous  ^*-ou- 
^z&z,    ilm  p^mko  paz.t  a.   '^iott&  ^atij- 
ia-cUon  ,    &i   'riom  cwltc  ,    a/^&o  ^  />^^ 
pdzJaltS'  comid&z^at'lofi' 

9^ot^&  Uh  iamS^e/s  et  tth  owMa/ris 
^e/vvlUur  e^t  CD&^y-afvtd.  x/Y ^  Ji  - 

Ce  Caraaere  Coule  a  ete  invent^  &  Grav6  la 
premiere  fois  i'An  1753.  fur  le  double  Mediaan 
OU  Cicero ,  pour  fervir  a  la  Mufique ,  que  J.  F 
RosART  a  invente  &donne  au  Public  le  3  de  Jan- 
vier 17^0  dontleSr.  Sancto  Lapis  &  Antonio 
MAHOuT&toutelaVille  d'Harlempeut  certifier, 


214.  Rosarfs  Caractere  de  Finance,  from  his  Epreuve,  Brussels 
{after  1760) 


CAR.ACTERE  DS  MUSIQUE. 


■^ J:!L 


IX^ZS 


■p- 


~t 


vt^- 


■>- 


©- 


j;Vf) 


ty€fi!  aAatiC'v  toii/i''m&ni  pour  mt  coear 


Ts: 


v^ 


^q®: 


--^ 


32 


^<r- 


4^ 


■^ 


Hv 


-o 


i=S=]: 


3_ 


3 


EE 


1^     1^ 


mentf  c^  dott  €&  r&7zd^&  ti&u^eu/x>  et  ccyrt^ 


-0— ^ 


1©- 


M- 


'-n^ 


d: 


V- 


i 


eHj 


i^^^^.  %/CA!     an      aae/  taur- 

—^ ^ 


ZE2 


ie- 


J 


^^ 


^^' 


TTz-^i^  pour  w?t  cacur    tm^  -  oz& ,  o-'at- 


m 


-^ 


|B P 


O-^H*' 


jm 


"^^^3^ 


sJ^/Z'  =  <?^2^<5     'L&    mo  =  me/wtf  mU  doit  ^& 


i 


■M^ 


0 — ^_^ 


IS 


^ 


-  ..  |P  -|a_— -p 


a: 


V — !/- 


¥- 


215.  Rosarfs  Music  Types ^  from  his  Epreuve^  Bnisscis 
{after  1760) 


216.  Rosarfs  Ornaments^  from  his  Epreuve,  Brussels 
{after  1760) 


NETHERLANDS  TYPES:  1500-1800         43 

chantment,  old-fashioned,  after  the  foundation  of  the  Bata- 
vian  Republic,  and  had  to  give  place  to  characters  of  a 
more  modern  cut.  .  .  .  The  name  of  Fournier,  formerly  so 
well-known  among  us,  had  already  been  eclipsed  at  this 
period  by  that  of  Didot.  What  Fleischman  had  formerly 
been  [to  Dutch  type-founding]  Didot  was  at  that  epoch."  ^ 
There  was  not  a  single  foundry  which  did  not  try  to  adver- 
tise itself  by  Didot  types  or  copies  of  them,  and  this  was 
the  case  not  only  in  Holland,  but  in  Germany,  and  indeed 
throughout  Europe.  Those  who  recall  the  end  of  the  chap- 
ter on  German  types  will  remember  how  true  this  was  of  the 
output  of  Unger.  So,  too,  the  eighteenth  century  in  Dutch 
typography  closes  under  the  influence  of  the  faults  and  mer- 
its of  the  orreat  French  founder. 


fc>' 


England  was  largely  supplied  with  Dutch  printing  types 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  as  we  know  from  the  James 
correspondence  quoted  in  Rowe  Mores'  A  Dissertation  upon 
English  Typographical  Founders  and  Founderies,  and  from 
letters  about  Bishop  Fell's  gift  of  types  to  the  University 
Press,  Oxford.  The  Fell  types  were  procured  in  Holland 
about  1693,  through  the  intervention  of  Rev.  Thomas  Mar- 
shall, preacher  to  the  English  merchants  in  Holland  and 
afterwards  Dean  of  Gloucester;  and  negotiations  consumed 
some  four  years,  largely  because  Marshall  did  not  know  a 
punch  from  a  matrix !  Moxon,  the  first  English  writer  on 
type-founding,  says  that  the  "common  consent  of  Book-men 
assign  the  Garland  to  the  Dutch-Letters,"  and  he  himself 
greatly  admired  them.  In  the  second  paper  of  his  Exercises 
he  gives  a  very  oft-quoted  description  of  them,  which  I 
spare  the  reader.^  Moxon  particularly  praised  Van  Dyck's 

^Enschede's  Fonderies  de  Caractires,  etc.,  pp.  382-386. 

Moxon's  Mechanick  Exercises,  or  the  Doctrine  of  Handy-  Works  afifilied  to 
the  Art  of  Printing,  Numb.  II,  «[r2.  Of  Letter;  also  pis.  11-17. 


44  PRINTING  TYPES 

types,  and  the  engraved  plates  of  them,  enlarged,  shown 
in  his  Mechanick  Exercises^  have  already  been  alluded  to. 
Dutch  types  were  also  in  vogue  in  Germany  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  were  imported  in  large 
quantities.  Some  roman  and  italic  Dutch  types  of  this 
date  were  shown  in  connection  with  Breitkopf's  specimen 
in  Gessner's  Buchdnickerkunst  unci  Schiftgiesserey,  Leipsic, 
1740.  These  came  from  a  Leipsic  foundry  which  Fournier 
considered  second  only  to  Breitkopf's — that  of  Hr.  Erhardt. 
A  head-line  (omitted  in  our  reproduction)  reads :  "  Real 
Dutch  types,  and  a  great  number  of  other  characters,  which 
are  to  be  found  in  the  Erhardt  foundry  here."  These  fonts 
resemble  those  given  by  Fell  to  the  Oxford  Press,  and  in  cut 
belong  to  the  seventeenth  century.  Their  provenance  I  do 
not  know.  Although  heavy,  they  retain  considerable  vivacity 
of  line,  and  have  great  capabilities  when  used  with  taste. 
Our  illustrations  {Jigs.  217  aiid  218)  show  the  larger  sizes 
of  both  roman  and  italic — the  latter  being  the  better  of  the 
two. 

The  types  which  the  Dutch  supplied  to  England  at  the 
commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century  are  shown  in  the 
specimen  printed  at  the  beginning  of  Watson's  History  of 
the  Art  of  Printing,"-  of  1713  {fig.  26 1).  They  had  begun  to 
assume  a  general  uncouthness  which  helped  the  English 
to  abandon  their  purchase  for  those  more  comfortable  and 
"cheerful"  roman  letters  designed  by  William  Caslon  about 
1720. 

S/iecimen  of  Tyfies  in  the  Printing-House  of  James  Watson,  Edinburgh, 
1713,  pp.  i-xLvui. 


o  _ 

§  > 


'=5  S^ 


inirigTT 


.s 

E 
o 
Pi 

•1  d 


P^^^         o. 


c  • 

X  o 


cr 


<^ 


> 

H 

H 


?3 

CO 

•c 

C 

•  I— ( 

CO 


'C    •  •—I 


E 
o 

c 
o 


cr 
P 

ID 

•>; 

o 

6 

c 
E 
g 


CO 


^ 

•^ 
•^ 


5S 


^ 


is 


3 

Q 

CO 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SPANISH  types:  1500-1800 

THE  great  traditions  of  printing  held  their  own  in 
Spain  during  the  first  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury somewhat  persistently  —  perhaps  more  so 
than  in  other  countries/  This  was  no  doubt  due  to  Span- 
ish conservatism,  and  to  the  geographical  position  of  the 
country,  which  isolated  it  from  foreign  fashions.  Indeed, 
the  Mozarabic  Breviary  of  1502,  printed  by  Peter  Hagen- 
bach,  a  German,  at  Toledo,  the  Mozarabic  Missal  of  the 
same  date,  and  some  later  volumes  are — like  very  many 
Spanish  fifteenth  century  books — simply  copies  of  manu- 
scripts, rendered  in  type.  The  Hurus  printing-house  at 
Saragossa  produced  fine  work  of  this  kind.  The  most  re- 
nowned of  its  illustrated  books,  says  Haebler,  "is  the  edition 
of  the  Offida  quotidiana  of  1500,  which  contains  some  fifty 
woodcuts  and  more  than  one  thousand  magnificent  initial 
letters.  The  copy  printed  on  vellum  and  illuminated,  which 
was  in  the  hands  of  Don  Jose  Sancho  Rayon  when  Hidalgo 
wrote  his  enthusiastic  description  of  it,  is  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  executed  at  any  time  and  at  any  place  in  the 
world,  and  reminds  us  of  the  beautiful  illuminations  of  medi- 
aeval manuscripts."  The  splendid  Missale  Romanum  on  vel- 
lum, printed  in  1510  at  Saragossa  by  "George  Coci  Theu- 

*  ELnglish  authorities  for  the  history  of  Spanish  typography  from  1500  to 
1800  are  few.  There  appears  to  be  no  readily  accessible  survey  of  Spanish 
printing  for  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries,  even  in 
Spanish ;  although  there  are  essays  on  presses  (during  the  whole  or  part  of 
this  period)  in  Palencia,  Seville,  Alcala,  Valencia,  Toledo,  Medina  del  Campo, 
Madrid,  Cordova,  Tarragona,  Lerida,  Leon,  the  kingdom  of  Aragon,  etc., 
many  of  which  are  admirable.  In  English  there  is  little  in  the  way  of  a  contin- 
uous narrative,  though  Mr.  H.  Thomas's  paper  on  The  Outfiut  of  Sfianish 
Books  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  (Transactions  of  the  Bibliographical  Soci- 
ety, Sept.,  1920)  may  be  consulted  with  advantage  for  this  period. 


46  PRINTING  TYPES 

tonic,"  ^  a  successor  of  Hurus  (and  owner  of  this  office  after 
1506),  is  executed  in  a  very  Italian  letter,  in  red  and  black, 
with  music,  and  with  a  representation  of  the  Crucifixion  op- 
posite the  Canon,  which  is  surrounded  by  elaborate  borders. 
It  is  a  book  typical  in  style  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth  century — between 
1514  and  1518  —  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  Spanish  ty- 
pography appeared ;  namely,  the  Pol3'^glot  Bible  printed  by 
Arnald  Guillen  de  Brocar  at  Alcala;  usually  known  as  the 
Complutensian  Poly  got,  from  the  Latin  name  of  Alcala  — 
Complutum.This  was  published  at  the  expense  of  Cardinal 
Ximenez  (or,  as  he  is  commonly  called  in  Spain,  Cisneros), 
Primate  of  Spain,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  founder  of 
the  University  of  Alcala,  whose  patronage  of  learning  and 
printing  is  now  better  remembered  than  his  hand  in  the 
destruction  of  thousands  of  Arabic  manuscripts — an  or- 
thodox feat  in  which  he  was  the  principal  actor !  This  Bible 
—  a  very  splendid  performance  for  any  period,  and  the  first 
of  the  great  Polyglots  —  was  printed  in  Hebrew,  Chaldee, 
Greek,  and  Latin,  between  1514  and  1518,  as  has  been 
said;  but  it  was  not  published  until  after  the  Cardinal's 
death  in  1522.  The  Greek  types  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  particularly  famous,  for  they  preserve  the  char- 
acter of  older  Greek  manuscripts,  being  based  on  an  early 
book-hand  and  not  (like  the  Aldine  Greek  fonts)  on  the 
fifteenth  century  cursive  handwriting  of  Greek  scholars. 
This  font  was  possibly  modelled  on  the  Greek  characters 
of  a  manuscript  from  the  Vatican  Library  which  the  Pope 
lent  Ximenez  to  aid  in  constituting  his  text.  But  the  Com- 
plutensian Polyglot  was  printed  under  special  and  ad- 
vantageous conditions,  and  cannot  be  considered  typical  of 
Spanish  work  of  its  period.  Its  printer,  Brocar,  was  ap- 

*  A  copy  is  ill  tlie  Hispanic  Society's  Library,  New  York. 


r> 


O 


t*^ 


^ 
^ 


S 


05 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  47 

pointed  typographer  to  Charles  V,  for  whom  he  executed 
in  1517,  at  Logrono,  the  Crbnica  de  Don  Juan  11^  by  Perez 
de  Guzman,  which  Haebler  calls  a  masterpiece  of  typogra- 
phy. This  and  the  Polyglot  Bible,  I  shall  describe  later.  Of 
the  ninety-two  books  printed  by  Brocar  but  sixteen  appeared 
before  1500.  For  some  time  after  his  death  (which  occurred 
probably  before  1523),  his  office  continued  to  be  one  of  the 
most  famous  in  Spain. 

How  strongly  the  old  traditions  of  Spanish  typography 
persisted,  is  proved  by  books  printed  even  after  15  50,  which 
are  almost  indistinguishable  from  incunabula.  There  was 
the  same  love  of  a  massive  black-letter  for  the  text;  the  same 
enormous  heraldic  emblems  were  popular ;  the  same  xylo- 
graphic  inscriptions  in  large,  round  Spanish  black-letter 
appeared  on  title-pages.  This  round  Gothic  letter  in  all  its 
splendour  was  used  in  Spain  for  lettering  titles  on  vellum- 
bound  books — printed  in  roman  type — all  through  the 
seventeenth  and  well  into  the  eighteenth  century;  and  the 
illustration  of  part  of  a  Gothic  alphabet  in  this  hand  {jig. 
219)  may  be  compared  with  Plan  tin's  canon  d'Espagne 
{Jig.  197),  and  some  examples  of  old  gothic  fonts  (Jig.  220), 
which  were  its  type  equivalents.  By  1560,  as  in  other  parts 
of  Europe,  there  was  a  more  general  introduction  of  roman 
type,  and  a  realization  of  the  flexibility  of  printing  when 
applied  to  preliminary  matter;  and  this  led  to  a  change 
of  style.  The  roman  fonts  used  in  these  later  books  were  of 
rather  a  coarse,  rough  kind,  not  particularly  interesting,  nor 
very  distinguishable  from  the  poorer  roman  types  used  in 
France  and  Italy  at  that  date.^  In  some  folios,  a  tall,  thin 
lower-case  roman  letter,  something  like  the  types  of  Gara- 

*  For  italic  and  roman  alphabets  of  this  period  see  Arte  de  Escrivir  of  Fran- 
cisco Lucas,  Madrid,  1577.  These  are  reproduced  in  Strange's  Alfihabets 
(third  edition),  plates  S7  and  70.  They  are  called  type-letters  by  Strange, 
but  are  really  calligraphic. 


48  PRINTING  TYPES 

mond  or  certain  Italian  roman  characters,  was  used  with 
great  effect  for  head-lines  and  running-titles ;  and  it  was 
sometimes  employed  in  liturgical  books  in  connection  with 
plain-song  notation. 

The  influence  of  the  Netherlands  on  printing  in  Spain 
was  considerable.  Plantin  of  Antwerp  produced  the  Polyglot 
Bible  commonly  called  after  him,  under  the  patronage  of 
Philip  II — whose  patronage  was  about  all  he  gave  to  it! 
Plantin  printed,  besides  liturgical  books  for  Spain  (for  which 
he  later  obtained  a  special  "privilege"  enjoyed  for  a  long 
time  in  the  Plantin-Moretus  family),  a  large  number  of 
books  in  Spanish.  These  were  mostly  composed  in  his  deli- 
cate early  manner,  which  was  more  interesting  and  distin- 
guished than  his  later  somewhat  overblown  style.  Spain, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  had  more  books  printed  abroad 
than  any  other  country,  on  account  of  its  preponderating 
political  importance — the  Netherlands  ranking  first  in  this 
output,  followed  by  Italy.  These  foreign  productions  influ- 
enced the  native  Spanish  press  in  both  format  and  typog- 
raphy, and  there  are  many  volumes  of  this  period  printed 
in  Spain  which,  in  their  small  roman  type,  restraint  in  ar- 
rangement, and  delicacy  of  decoration,  are  plainly  inspired 
by  foreign  influence. 

Plantin  was  invited  to  establish  a  printing-house  in  the 
Peninsula.  Being  asked  by  Philip  II  in  1572  to  suggest 
which  of  his  sons-in-law  could  take  charge  of  it,  Plantin, 
probably  not  wishing  to  deprive  himself  of  the  help  of  either 
Moretus  or  Raphelengius,  replied  Avith  diplomacy  that  they 
might  direct  it  together,  but  that  neither  was  capable  of 
doing  it  alone.  That  particular  plan,  therefore,  came  to  noth- 
ing. He  did  recommend  to  the  King,  however,  in  1576,  a 
printer  of  Flemish  origin,  Matthew  Gast,  who  had  been  for 
some  years  previously  in  Spain.  This  Matthew  Gast,  who 


y^  ^^^,^=^^~^ 


^^^ 


5^.?>'^ 


?^^)tm:- 


■Si, 


"^ 


^rr- 


^^ 


^'4 


X 


i. 


o 


^Kl^te 


•-  &o  \  \  — *  Sn 

^  O  <TJ  ^  ^ 

o  c  «>  2  o  ^ 

~  o  ■•- 


(5)  ^  ^ 

tn    o     (A     5>     2     ~   U 


s    o   *- 

.^    «    <^ 


yi    ^ 


o   ;=: 


O     £     3 


II 


«  ^  p>  -H  -5 
0)   =   « 


3     - 


o 


<S    ^   O     3     O 

O     J-  tj     o     O     — 

o   a-  Ci.  CT  ■£? 


O     J- 

O     3 


•hr    3    O 


r=  W   S>  £ 


.   2  ^ 

^   H*  to 
o  «itf   ^ 


N^   «    (a 
^    .  B 

o     O    — * 

p    «    ^ 

o  £  2 

*-   r-    o 

o  p   a. 

'-^  v.  .2 
o  ^  S 

lis 


•  ►•►■•>•>•►•• 


tS^S^^ 


iTW- 


6 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  49 

had  an  establishment  in  Salamanca,  had  himself  found  dif- 
ficulties in  procuring  types,  for  in  1574  we  find  him  writ- 
ing to  Plantin,  asking  him  to  send  him  a  type-cutter.  Plan- 
tin  replied  that  since  the  death  of  the  type-cutters  Guyot 
and  Tavernier,  he  himself  had  found  only  one  man  who 
was  good  for  anything,  and  he  had  continually  to  be  told 
what  to  do  in  any  work  demanding  initiative  or  judg- 
ment. 

For  Spanish  printing,  the  seventeenth  century  was  a  dis- 
couraging period.  The  types  in  use  were  chiefly  roman;  the 
first  edition  of  Don  Quixote  being  printed  from  uncouth, 
old  style  roman  fonts.  The  copper-plate  title-pages  in  gen- 
eral European  use  had  also  some  vogue  there.  As  was  the 
case  wherever  they  appeared,  printing  fell  off.  Sometimes 
it  only  seemed  to  do  so,  because  the  contrast  between  the 
rough  types  of  the  time  and  the  precision  of  a  copper-plate 
was  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  typography;  sometimes  be- 
cause if  the  fashionable  copper-plates  were  supplied,  print- 
ers seemed  to  feel  that  they  could  print  as  badly  as  they 
chose — a  point  of  view  then  current  in  England  and  else- 
where. Then,  too,  the  close  political  relations  with  Italy 
played  a  part  in  Spanish  printing,  and  Italian  fashions  in 
seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  century  printing  were  usu- 
ally bad.  Spanish  books  of  this  period  are  much  like  the 
wretched  productions  of  the  Italian  press — with  congested 
title-pages,  composed  in  letters  too  large  for  the  page,  ill- 
printed,  and  decorated  (or  at  least  supposed  to  be)  with  badly 
executed  typographical  ornaments.  The  type  was  generally 
a  crude  old  style  roman  letter. 

The  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  saw 
some  eflbrts  toward  more  interest  in  national  typography. 
The  first  Spanish  king  of  the  Bourbon  family,  Philip  V, 
granted   in   1716  certain   privileges  and  exemptions   for 


50  PRINTING  TYPES 

music-printing  (not  before  attempted  in  Madrid),  which 
had  been  begun  on  the  initiative  and  at  the  expense  of 
Don  Joseph  Torres,  chief  organist  of  the  Chapel  Royal.  And 
in  1717  it  was  ordered  that  a  press  for  liturgical  books 
should  be  set  up,  so  that  both  for  Spain  and  in  particular 
for  the  Indies,  no  foreign  books  of  that  class  need  be  im- 
ported; but  it  was  not  done.  In  1729,  Antonio  Bordazar,  a 
native  of  Valencia  (where  he  was  born  in  1671),  proposed 
the  establishment  of  a  printing-house  in  Spain  to  produce 
liturgical  works  for  the  use  of  the  Spanish  Church.  In  old 
days,  a  monopoly  of  such  volumes  seems  to  have  been  main- 
tained by  the  monastery  of  the  Escorial,  which  procured 
missals,  breviaries,  etc.,  from  the  Plantin-Moretus  Office  at 
Antwerp;  and  they  were  still,  apparently,  imported  under 
this  privilege.  In  1731,  a  royal  decree  again  approved  the 
native  printing  of  Spanish  hturgical  books,  and  called  for 
a  discussion  of  ways  and  means  to  this  end.  Bordazar  had 
already  submitted  to  Philip  V  a  carefully  drawn-up  me- 
morial in  which  he  represented  that  types,  paper,  and  ink 
could  be  as  easily  procured,  and  books  as  successfully  pro- 
duced, in  Spain  as  in  the  Netherlands,  and  he  now  received 
the  royal  authority  to  print  this  document. 

This  he  did  in  the  year  1732,  at  Valencia,  under  the  title 
of  Plaiitificacion  de  la  Imprenta  de  el  Rezo  Sagrado,  que  su 
Magestad  {Dios  le  guarde)  se  ha  servido  mandar  que  se  estab- 
lezca  en  Espana,  in  a  handsomely  printed  tractate  of  some 
twenty  folio  pages  {Jig.  22 1).  It  is  divided  under  the  heads 
of  paper,  type,  engravings,  materials  for  calendars  and  mu- 
sic, inks,  estimates  of  costs,  choice  of  liturgical  books  to  be 
printed,  presses,  administration,  and  time  necessary  for  in- 
stallation. The  most  interesting  thing  about  it  for  our  pur- 
pose is  the  specimen  of  types  —  Caracteres  de  Espana — 
which  it  was  proposed  to  use.  These  are  shown  in  twelve 


PLANTIFICACION 


LA  IMPRENTA 

DE  EL  REZO 


Q.UE    SU    MAGESTA 

(DIOSIE  GUARDE) 

SE  HA  SERVIDO  MANDAR 

Que  fe  eftablezca  en  Efpana. 


EN  VALENCIA. 


For  Antonio  Bordazar  de  Artazu,  Impreflbr  del  Santo  Oficio, 
i  dc  laliufcre  Ciudad ,  aiio  de  1732. 


22L  Tztle-page  of  Bordazar'' s  Plantifcacion^  Falencia^  1732 
(reduced  ) 


SPANISH  TYPES:   1500-1800  51 

sizes — grancanon  to  glosilla;  portions  of  Latin  service- 
books,  printed  in  red  and  black,  being  employed  to  display 
the  types.  These  pages  constitute  the  earliest  Spanish  speci- 
men of  types  that  I  have  seen,  though  these  types  were  not 
Spanish  but  were  cast  from  matrices  imported  from  Flan- 
ders. In  the  paragraph  concerning  them  Bordazar  says: 
"Given  the  paper,  about  vuhich  there  is  no  doubt,  corre- 
spondingly one  can  have  no  doubt  about  type,  for  Carlos  II, 
of  glorious  memory,  had  matrices  brought  from  Flanders, 
and  these  are  the  ones  now  in  the  keeping  of  Juan  Gomez 
Morales,  a  skilful  and  intelligent^  type-founder  of  Madrid,^ 
whose  variety  of  types,  although  they  seem  but  few,  are  in- 
creased in  different  ways  as  may  be  required,^  by  means  of 
spaces  either  separating  letter  from  letter*  or  line  from  line, 
making  in  each  book  such  combinations  as  elegant  arrange- 
ment demands;  without  any  need  of  using  for  76  books  a 
like  number  of  kinds  of  type,  or  even  two  or  three  kinds  for 
each  book,  as  is  said  by  those  ignorant  of  the  subject.  For 
this  would  call  for  more  than  200  varieties,  a  number  that 
does  not  exist  and  has  never  existed  in  all  the  presses  of 
Europe.  Thus  all  the  books  which  are  no\A ,  or  which  ever 
have  been,  in  the  Royal  Monastery  of  the  Escorial  are  com- 
binations and  arrangements  that  can  be  obtained  from  the 
types  of  Juan  Gomez  Morales,  which  are  the  following" 
(here  appears  the  specimen).  Bordazar  adds:  "Regarding 
the  durability  and  lasting  sharpness  which  the  contours  of 
certain  foreign  types  possess,  because  of  which  some  per- 
sons have  thought  the  moulds  to  have  been  made  of  silver, 

*  curioso,  i.e.,  virtuoso  —  a  person  curious  about  or  interested  in  a  subject — 
of  an  inquiring  turn  of  mind. 

'  en  la  Corte,  i.e.,  Madrid. 

'  Literally,  "changing  with  the  art  that  symmetry  requires." 

*  Qy->  word  from  word? 


52  PRINTING  TYPES 

types  of  the  same  quality  may  be  cast  in  future,  since  the 
alloy  has  already  been  made  in  Valencia,  and  has  been  ap- 
proved by  the  founder,  Juan  Gomez  Morales  himself,  who 
rated  it  as  of  the  quality  of  Dutch  type-metal  and  thought 
it  was  of  foreign  make." 

The  texto  {Jig.  222)  was  used  in  Yriarte's  Obras  Sueltas, 
printed  at  Madrid  by  Francisco  Manuel  de  Mena  in  1774, 
and  apparently,  with  the  change  of  a  few  letters,  in  Bayer's 
De  Numis  Hebrseo-Samaritanis^  printed  at  Valencia  by  Be- 
nito Monfort  in  1781.  Perez  de  Soto  appears  to  have  used 
it  in  the  Bibliotheca  Arabico-Hhpana  Escurialensis  of  1760. 
Mendez  says  that  these  types  came  from  the  "incomparable 
printing-house  of  Plantin,"  and  that  they  were  ultimately 
utilized  in  Carlos  Ill's  time,^  which  carries  out  the  attribu- 
tion I  have  given  the  texto.  This  is  still  further  confirmed 
by  finding  the  same  type,  with  a  variant  italic,  in  the  Opera 
of  Hubert  Goltzius,  published  at  Antwerp  in  1708;  whether 
an  edition  of  Goltzius  issued  some  sixty  years  earlier  em- 
ployed the  type,  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  roman  fonts  I  have  ever  seen;  and  the 
best  of  the  three  forms  of  italic  used  with  it — that  in  Obras 
Siieltas — is  almost  equally  charming. 

Bordazar's  farseeing  and  enlightened  proposals  created 
some  stir,  but  he  did  not  live  to  witness  their  realization. 
After  his  death  in  1 744,  Jose  de  Orga,"  also  of  Valencia, 
who  had  been  brought  up  in  Bordazar's  printing-house, 
where  he  seems  to  have  been  manager  or  foreman,  took  up 
the  plan  and  petitioned  (in  1748)  Ferdinand  VI  to  be  al- 

'  Mendez'  Tyfiografihia  Es/ianola,  Madrid,  1796,  p.  406. 

'  An  able  printer,  who  was  the  ancestor  of  a  very  distinguished  Valencian 

"printing  family."  Jose  and  Tomas  de  Orga,  his  sons,  printed  in  1790  an 

important  edition  of  the  Bible  ti-anslated  into  Spanish,  executed  in  types  from 

the  fonds  of  the  Real  Biblioteca  de  Madrid,  and  from  the  foundry  of  Eudaldo 

Pradell. 


CO 

< 
< 

< 


O 

H 
X 

pa 


DO  ^^ 


©O       "^ 

•  — <   *-< 
rt  'So 

N  g 

5  f^ 


CM 


8    ^ 

•5  f^ 

^  -a 

c    a->    o 


CO       3j 


< 

CO 


p4 


ex. 
o 

w 

B 
o 

G 

?^ 

OO 

O 

a 

<L> 

to 


C2  i'" 

c    5    S 

•-    ^   XI 

OS        M 


c^  *6 

^O  'O 


.    S    .J    ^  .ti    ^ 


o    c 


^  fA,  ^ 

cxs2    G     r^  ::^ 


9-» 

s  i 


^      ^ 


CO    Xi 

tn    LG 
3    ^ 


"rt    (is 
CG      5J 

a-  r- 


CO 


«i> 


2     «^ 
>    ^ 

a,  cu 


•a  ^ 

^o   > 

G     "^ 


CO 


bJO 


nS 


C 

a 

o 

S 

♦  — H 

CO-    jn 

I— <    u 
C 

W 


I 


a  i 


J:^     ^     6 

c   ^  y 
s  •-  ^ 


Q 


c3 

g 

•  1—1 

d 

O 

•  »-^ 


on 

w  .a 

O 


<-3 


CO 


<u 


J— (      •— <        <— I        4— > 


o 

•«— « 

O 


CO 


^ 


I 


=^ 


I 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  53 

lowed  to  establish  a  "liturgical"  printing-press  in  Madrid 
for  the  use  and  honour  of  the  Spanish  nation — setting  forth 
numerous  difficulties  and  inconveniences  caused  by  the  ne- 
cessity of  having  such  books  printed  abroad;  and  again  al- 
leging that  the  work  done  earlier  by  Plantin  and  Moretus, 
and  by  other  printers  in  Venice  and  Holland,  could  be  per- 
formed just  as  well  in  Spain,  both  as  to  material  and  exe- 
cution, at  less  cost,  and  without  taking  money  out  of  the 
country/  Orga  removed  to  Madrid,  where  he  died  Febru- 
ary 19,  1756,  and,  as  far  as  the  native  production  of  type 
was  concerned,  his  efforts  seem  to  have  come  to  nothing 
at  all.  Fournier  wrote,  in  1766,  "Spain  is  lacking  in  type- 
cutters:  it  has  but  two  foundries,  which  are  in  Madrid; 
one  belonging  to  the  Jesuits,  who  let  it  for  five  or  six  hun- 
dred livres;  the  other  was  bought  in  Paris,  from  M.  Cottin, 
who  sold  it  for  thirty  thousand  livresP  But  the  project  to 
print  liturgical  books  in  Spain  was  finally  taken  up,  in 
Carlos  Ill's  reign,  by  a  Compania  de  Impresores  y  Libreros^  in 
conjunction  with  the  authorities  of  the  Escorial.  This  body 
obtained  royal  sanction,  and  the  establishment  of  a  com- 
pletely equipped  printing-house  for  it  was  approved  in  1 787. 
A  building  was  bought  and  the  scheme  was  in  operation 
when  Mendez  wrote  of  it  in  1796,^  and  in  1811  its  director 
was  Juan  Josef  Sigiienza  y  Vera — a  pupil  of  the  famous 
Ibarra. 

This  fruition  of  a  long-considered  and  interminably  de- 
ferred plan  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, a  moment  when  some  excellent  Spanish  printing  was 

'  The  various  negotiations  of  Bordazar  and  Jose  de  Orga  in  relation  to  this 

subject  are  treated  fully  in  Jose   Serrano  y  Morales'  Resefia  Historica  en 

forma  de  Diccionario  de  las  Imfirentas  que  han  existido  en  Valencia  desde  la 

Introduccion  del  Arte  Tifiograjico  en  JLsfiana  hasta  f/  cno  1 868,  etc.  Valencia, 

1898-99. 

^  Mendez'  Tyjiografihia  Esfianola,  p.  410. 


54  PRINTING  TYPES 

done^  —  the  result  of  a  general  movement  in  industry  and 
art  at  a  prosperous  national  era.  Carlos  III,  whose  reign 
lasted  for  almost  thirty  years,  and  who  died  in  1788,  was 
a  Bourbon,  half-brother  to  Ferdinand  VI,  and  much  influ- 
enced in  his  tastes  by  France.  A  most  enlightened  man,  his 
efforts  toward  the  rehabilitation  or  establishment  of  all  kinds 
of  Spanish  industries,  and  his  patronage  of  the  fine  arts, 
were  very  ably  seconded  by  his  ministers.  It  was  under 
Carlos  that  the  Buen  Retiro  porcelain  was  made,  and  the 
palace  of  San  Ildefonso  at  La  Granja  was  filled  with  charm- 
ing products  from  a  glass  factory  there  which  he  encour- 
aged. Trade  in  watches  and  optical  instruments  was  fos- 
tered at  Madrid;  fine  leathers  were  made  at  Cordova  and 
Seville,  and  velvets  at  Avila.  A  royal  decree  of  1733  had 
already  pronounced  that  hidalgos  could  engage  in  handi- 
crafts without  loss  of  caste !  Then,  too,  the  Crown  granted 
various  exemptions  and  privileges  to  the  printing-trade.  In 
1763,  a  decree  had  exempted  printers  from  military  service, 
and  this  applied  to  type-cutters  and  type-founders.  Metals 
used  in  the  work  of  the  latter  were  reduced  in  price  by  one- 
third,  and  divers  privileges  and  rights  were  conceded  to 
printers — partly  to  help  the  industry  and  partly  to  im- 
prove book-making. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century,  Gabriel  Ramirez  was 
doing  good  work,  and  Perez  de  Soto,  royal  printer,  pro- 
duced creditable  books ;  but  Joachin  Ibarra,  who  was  born 

*  There  was,  too,  an  interest  in  printing  in  Portugal  at  this  period.  The 
Impressao  Regia  was  established  at  Lisbon  in  1769  through  the  influence  of 
the  Marquis  de  Pombal,  the  reforming  minister  of  Joseph  I  (1750-1777). 
The  scheme  was  a  splendid  one  —  a  national  press,  which  was  to  be  at  once 
a  school  of  all  branches  of  typography,  and  a  means  of  producing  books  for 
the  educational  needs  of  Portugal.  It  was  begun  under  direction  of  Miguel 
da  Costa  ;  and  still  exists  as  the  National  Printing  House  of  Portugal.  Four- 
nier  said  (1766)  that  a  type-foundry  had  been  in  existence  at  Lisbon  for  some 
thirty-five  years,  a  Parisian  named  ViUeneuve  being  its  owner. 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  55 

in  Saragossa  in  1725,  was  the  Spanish  printer  who  had  the 
greatest  reputation — not  merely  in  Spain,  but  throughout 
Europe.  Ibarra  was  evidently  much  influenced  by  Bodoni, 
and  somewhat,  perhaps,  by  Didot  and  Baskerville.  To  look 
to  Bodoni  was  natural.  Parma,  like  the  Kingdom  of  the 
Two  SiciHes,  was  then  in  Bourbon  hands,  and  the  relation 
between  the  Spanish  Court  and  that  of  Parma  was  close. 
Carlos  III  (whose  mother,  Elizabeth  Farnese,  was  a  Prin- 
cess of  Parma)  was  himself  made  Duke  of  Parma  in  1731. 
On  his  accession  to  the  Kingdom  of  Naples,  where  he 
encouraged  fine  printing, — notably  Baiardi's  great  work, 
De//e  Antichita  di  Ercolano^  alluded  to  by  Mendez, — his 
brother  Philip  became  Duke  of  Parma.  Philip,  in  turn,  was 
succeeded  by  a  son,  Ferdinand,  who  was  Bodoni's  patron.^ 
Ibarra,  therefore,  as  Spanish  Court  printer,  must  have  been 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  books  printed  for  Carlos  Ill's 
nephew  by  Bodoni,  who  held  the  same  post  in  Parma  that 
Ibarra  held  at  Madrid.  In  fact,  Bodoni  had  the  honorary  title 
of  Printer  to  the  Spanish  King ;  and  this  accounts  for  the 
beautifully  printed  memorial  discourses  issued  at  Parma  by 
Bodoni  in  1789,  on  the  death  of  Carlos  III — Botteri's  Ora- 
zione  Funebre  in  lodi  de  Don  Carlo  III;  and  the  Oratio  in 
Funere  Caroli  III  oi  Ridolfi  delivered  in  the  Papal  chapel 
at  Rome  on  the  same  occasion. 

Ibarra's  magnificent  Spanish  and  Latin  edition  of  Sallust, 
printed  in  1 772,  is  generally  considered  his  masterpiece  {Jig. 
223).  Other  great  books  printed  by  Ibarra  were  the  Royal 
Academy  edition  of  Don  Quixote  of  1780,  an  edition  of  the 
Bible,  the  Breviarium  Gothicum  .  .  .  ad  usum  Sacelli  Mozara- 

*  On  the  death  of  Ferdinand  in  1802,  the  Duchy  of  Parma  was  governed  by 
France,  until,  in  1815,  the  Congress  of  Vienna  gave  it  to  Marie  Louise,  wife 
of  Napoleon  I.  Tliis  explains  the  dedication  of  the  later  books  of  Bodoni  — 
who  preferred  rising  to  setting  suns! 


56  PRINTING  TYPES 

bicum  or  Mozarabic  Breviary  (1775),  Mariana's  Historia  de 
Espana,  and  Antonio's  Bibliotheca  Hispcma^  Fetus  et  Nova 
(1783-88) — all  of  which  are  worth  study.  The  Sail  List,  Don 
Quixote^  and  Antonio's  work  are  later  discussed. 

Ibarra's  printing  was  greatly  admired  by  book-lovers  of 
that  day  all  over  Europe.  The  Chevalier  de  Bourgoing^ 
writing  in  1 782  of  the  Academy  edition  of  Don  Quixote,  calls 
it  "equally  admirable  for  the  quality  of  the  ink,  the  beauty 
of  the  paper,  the  clearness  of  the  character,  and  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  finest  productions  of  the  kind  in  any  other 
nation.  This  is  not  the  first  proof  the  Spaniards  have  given 
of  their  ability  in  the  art  of  printing.  Every  connoisseur  is 
acquainted  Vvith,  and  prefers  to  the  editions  of  Baskerville 
and  Barbou,  the  Sallust,  which  the  Infant  Don  Gabriel  has 
translated  into  his  own  language,  and  some  other  works 
from  the  presses  of  Ibarra  at  Madrid,  and  from  those  of 
Benedict  Montfort  at  Valencia,  which  are  masterpieces  of 
the  typographical  art,  and  will  one  day  be  sought  after  by 
posterity,  as  we  now  search  for  those  of  the  Elzevirs."^ 
Franklin,  whose  busy  mind  was  always  interested  in  the 
development  of  typography,  was  conversant  with  Ibarra's 
editions.  Wridng  from  Passy,  December  4, 1 78 1,  to  William 
Strahan,  he  says:  "A  strong  Emulation  exists  at  Present 
between  Paris  and  Madrid,  with  regard  to  beautiful  Print- 
ing. Here  a  M.  Didot  lejeune  has  a  Passion  for  the  Art.  .  .  . 
He  has  executed  several  charming  Editions.  But  the  'Sal- 
ust'  [«■<?]  and  the  'Don  Quixote'  of  Madrid  are  thought 
to  excel  them."  This  rivalry  between  Didot  and  Ibarra  per- 
haps explains  a  rather  sour  allusion  to  the  latter  in  the 
Epitre  sur  les  Progres  de  V Imprimene  written  by  Didot  jils 

'  Travels  in  Sfiain,  London,  1789,  Vol.  I,  p.  244.  De  Bourgoing,  who  was 
secretary  to  the  French  embassy  at  Madrid,  wrote  a  book  about  his  travels, 
translated  into  English  under  the  above  title. 


■4 


LA  CONJURACION 

i)£  CATILINA 

P  O  R 

c^ra  sJLusTio'cRispo. 

VST  A  cosa  es  que  los  homhres  ^  que  de- 
•^sean  aventcyarse  a  los  demas  vlvien- 
tes  y  procuren  con  el  mayor  empeno 
710  pasar  la  vida  en  silencio  como  las 
hestias  ^  a  quienes  naturaleza  crib  m- 
cUnadas  a  la  tlerra  y  siervas  de  su  vientre,  NtieS" 
tro  vigor  ij  facultades  consisten  todas  en  el  animo  y 
el  cuerpo  ^  :  de  este  iisamos  mas  para  el  servicio  ^  de 
aquel  iws  valemos  para  el  mando  :  en  lo  tmo  somos 
iguales  a  los  Dioses  ^  en  lo  otro  a  los  hrutos*    For 


C.  SALLUSTII  CRISPI  veluti  pecora  ;  qu^  natura  prona, 

C ATI LTNy4  ^^^^^  ventri  obedientia  finxit.  Sed 

L.  yi  1  1      I      /i.  nostra  omnis  vh  in  animo  et  cor- 

I  MNis  homines,  qui  sese  sin-  pore  sita  est.  Animi  imperio ,  cor- 

dent    praestare  ceteris  ani-  poris  servitio  magis  utimur.  alte- 

I  malibus  ,  summa  ope  niti  rum  nobis  cum  Dis,  alterum  cum 

decet ,  ne  vitam  silentio  transeant,  belJuis  commune  est.  Quo  raihi  rec- 

A 

223.  Page  of  Salliist:  Ibarra^  Madrid^  1772  (reduced) 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  57 

aine^  in  1784,  who  uses  the  names  of  both  Ibarra  and  Bas- 
kerville  as  pegs  on  which  to  hang  laurels  in  honour  of  his 
excellent  papa!  Bodoni — more  generous — writes  in  1774 
of  "the  stupendous  Sallust  not  long  since  printed  with 
so  much  Jifiitezza  at  Madrid,"  and  Bayne  in  his  Journal 
reports  a  conversation  with  Franklin  in  which  the  latter 
said  that,  excepting  the  Sallust,  he  thought  the  Doji  Quixote 
equalled  anything  he  ever  saw.  "Ibarra  carried  the  perfec- 
tion of  his  art  to  a  point  until  that  time  unknown  in  Spain," 
says  Nee  de  la  Rochelle,^  "and  the  emulation  he  inspired 
in  his  confreres  caused  greater  advances  in  Typographic 
Art  in  twenty  years  than  it  had  made  in  the  two  preced- 
ing centuries.  He  is  distinguished  for  his  magnificent  edi- 
tions, in  which  sumptuous  engravings  are  combined  with 
sumptuous  types,  great  accuracy,  and  superior  presswork." 
Ibarra,  it  may  be  said  here,  introduced  in  Spain  on  his  own 
initiative  improvements  akin  to  those  made  by  Baskerville 
in  England  —  first,  an  ink  of  particularly  brilliant  quality 
which  he  made  for  his  own  use ;  and  second,  hot-pressed 
paper.  Indeed,  he  invented  a  machine  to  produce  the  latter. 
Carlos  III  appointed  Ibarra  court  printer,  and  he  was  also 
printer  to  the  Primate  and  the  Academia  de  la  Lengua,  for 
whom  he  executed  their  Dictionary.  He  died  at  Madrid, 
November  23, 1785  ;  and  the  Imprenta  Real  pubHshed  be- 
fore the  new  year  a  Soneto  a  la  muerte  de  Joaquin  Ibarra^ 
Impresor  de  Camara  de  S.  M.^ 

*  Recherches  .  .  .  sur  rEtablissernent  de  PArt  Tyfiographique  en  Esfiagne, 
etc.,  Paris,  1830,  p.  65. 

^  Probably  that  quoted  in  Juan  Josef  Sigiienza  y  Vera's  Mecanismo  del  arte 
de  la  Imfirenta,  etc.  Madrid,  1811.  In  this  beautifully  printed  little  book, 
dedicated  to  Ibarra's  niece,  the  author  describes  himself  as  "disciple  of 
Ibarra  and  director  of  the  Imprenta  de  la  Compaiiia  de  impresores  v  libreros 
del  reyno."  It  contains  a  "specimen"  of  Roman  and  Arabic  types  —  all  but 
one  from  the  "Catalan"  foundry  of  Eudaldo Pradell — and  Greek,  Hebrew, 
and  Arabic  alphabets. 


58  PRINTING  TYPES 

In  this  revival  of  printing,  Valencia  stands  out  through 
the  work  of  Monfort,  whose  particular  claim  to  remem- 
brance is  Fr.  Perez  Bayer's  work  on  Hebrew-Samaritan 
coins,  printed  in  1781,  Bayer  was  a  great  figure  in  all  the 
scholarly  undertakings  of  the  period  —  the  reformer  of 
studies  in  the  University  of  Salamanca,  where  he  held  the 
chair  of  Hebrew;  a  learned  classical  scholar,  and  preceptor 
to  the  Infantes  of  Spain.  He  it  was  who  contributed  the  open- 
ing dissertation  to  the  Infante  Don  Gabriel's  translation  of 
Sallust.  A  native  of  Valencia,^  and  archdeacon  of  its  cathe- 
dral, he  was  familiar  with  Monfort's  work,  and  naturally 
employed  him. 

Benito  Monfort,  in  contemporary  opinion  ranking  next  to 
Ibarra,  was  born  at  Valencia  about  1716,  and  died  (a  few 
months  before  Ibarra)  in  1785.  He  learned  his  trade  in  the 
office  of  Antonio  Bordazar,  where  (as  I  have  said)  Jose  de 
Orga,  another  eminent  printer,  was  manager.  Monfort  set 
up  his  own  office  in  1757,  and  later  became  printer  by  ap- 
pointment to  the  city  of  Valencia,  to  its  University,  etc.  His 
editions  were  praised  by  his  contemporaries,  w  ho  compared 
him,  for  no  very  intelligible  reason,  to  Baskerville.  In  the 
first  volume  of  his  edition  of  Mariana's  Historia  de  Espana, 
a  letter  from  the  king,  Carlos  III,  is  quoted,  "who  has  seen 
with  special  satisfaction  the  beauty  of  this  edition."  Among 
other  books  praised  in  a  contemporary  notice^  are  Perez  de 
Guzman's  Crbnica  del  Rey  Don  Juan  //(l779),  Pulgar's 
Crbnica  de  los  Reyes  Catolicos  (l780),  and  Perez  Bayer's  De 
JSi'umis  HebrsBo-Samantams  (l78l),  "which  for  its  beauty 
and  accuracy  has  merited  the  highest  eulogies  from  other 

^  Bayer  was  bora  in  1711  and  died  in  1794. 

'  Memorial  Literario  .  .  .  de  Madrid,  Nov.,  1785,  p.  363.  A  short  notice  of 
Monfort  and  titles  of  his  more  important  books  are  given  by  Ponz  in  an  ac- 
count of  Valencia  in  his  Fiage  de  Esfiana,  Tliird  Edition,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  259, 
260  and  288,  289. 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  59 

nations."  The  Mariana  and  these  three  books  seem  to  have 
been  his  best  achievements. 

Gabriel  de  Sancha,  a  Madrid  printer,  did  some  admir- 
able work  at  this  period,  and  his  best  books  are  worth  look- 
ing at.  His  Don  Quixote,  edited  by  Pellicer,  in  five  volumes 
illustrated  with  copper-plates,  was  fairly  well  printed.  His 
nine- volume  edition  in  duodecimo  is  desirable  on  account  of 
its  charming  and  well-engraved  designs.  Some  of  Sancha's 
other  printing  I  shall  describe  in  detail — notably  his  edi- 
tion of  Solis'  Conqmsta  de  Mexico. 

There  were  also  well-made  books  printed  at  Madrid  by 
Ramirez,  Marin,  the  Imprenta  Real,  and  other  houses,  as 
well  as  by  the  widow  and  sons  of  Ibarra,  who  carried  on 
his  establishment  in  the  Calle  de  la  Gorguera,  after  his 
death.  Among  the  works  executed  under  their  direction  was 
a  very  uninspired  one-volume  edition  of  the  Diccionario  de 
la  lengua  Castellana,  with  the  widow's  imprint  as  Impresora 
de  la  Real  Academ'ia  Espahola.  A  more  creditable  example 
of  their  A^^ork  is  the  anonymous  Relacion  del  Ultimo  Fiage 
al  Estrecho  de  Magallanes  (in  1 785—86),  a  handsome  quarto 
printed  in  1788.  The  classic  work  by  Mendez,  Typographia 
Espanola,  of  which  the  first  volume  only  was  printed,  also 
appeared  wdth  the  imprint  Viuda  de  Ibarra  —  a  barely  re- 
spectable piece  of  typography.  There  was  great  activity 
among  Spanish  printers  about  this  time.  Robert  Southev, 
writing  from  Madrid  in  1796,  says  rather  tartly,  "Lit- 
erature is  reviving  in  Spain.  The  translation  of  Sallust  by 
the  King's  brother  made  it  fashionable."  Coincident  with 
this  revival  of  printing,  a  number  of  Spanish  "specimens" 
were  issued,  some  of  which  are  of  considerable  interest. 

Printing  had  been  introduced  into  the  New  World  in  1539. 
Jacob  Cromburger,  who  settled  in  Seville  early  in  the  six- 


60  PRINTING  TYPES 

teenth  century,  was  the  foremost  printer  of  his  period.  He 
had  a  son  (or  brother)  Johann,  who  succeeded  in  obtaining 
an  exclusive  privilege  for  printing  in  Mexico,  but  to  take 
effective  advantage  of  it  gave  him  considerable  trouble.  He 
finally  sent  out  from  Spain  a  certain  Juan  Pablos,  who,  in 
the  city  of  Mexico,  in  1539,  printed  the  first  American  book, 
the  Doctrina  Christiana  en  la  lengiia  Mexicana  e  Castellana. 
Antonio  Ricardo  of  Turin,  who  had  settled  in  Mexico,  emi- 
grated to  Peru,  where  at  Lima  he  printed  in  1584  a  leaflet 
on  the  correction  of  the  calendar  and  a  catechism,  the  latter 
being  the  first  book  printed  in  South  America  proper.  Early 
Mexican  and  South  American  typography  was,  in  the  main, 
a  colonial  copy  of  printing  of  that  period  in  the  Mother 
Country.  The  books  bore  to  the  best  Spanish  printing  about 
the  same  relation  that  American  colonial  work  did  to  the 
English  printing  of  its  time.  Title-pages  in  facsimile  from 
many  of  these  books  may  be  seen  by  those  who  are  suf- 
ficiently curious  by  looking  through  Vindel's  Bibliograjia 
Grafica}  The  serious  student — and  he  must  be  very  seri- 
ous—  should  look  at  the  books  themselves.  They  had,  how- 
ever, so  little  influence  on  typographical  usage  in  general, 
that  they  are  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  subject  of  this 
book. 


For  our  first  example  of  a  sixteenth  century  Spanish  book 
we  may  take  Z)(?  las  Tahlas  y  Escalera  Spiritual^  a  Spanish 
translation  of  the  Latin  work  of  St.  Juan  Climaco,  printed 

'  P.  Vindel's  two  volumes  of  facsimiles,  entitled  Bibliografia  Grafica,  Ma- 
drid, 1910,  show  1224  reproductions  of  titles,  colophons,  portraits,  etc.,  taken 
from  rare  Spanish  books,  or  books  in  Spanish  published  elsewhere.  The  work 
contains  practically  no  text  and  is  haphazard  in  ari-angement,  but  is  valuable 
for  the  light  it  casts  on  Spanish  printing,  especially  from  1500  to  our  own 
day.  Portugal,  South  America,  and  the  Philippines  are  represented,  as  well  as 
Spain. 


1^  rr  •-*  *^  f*^ 


*««» 


«  O  «0  i:  Q 


tsp 


fif3*  C   ^   V# 


2-0 


—  ^^  "rt  ^  O  ^b^ 
-2  o  »Pr  *-»  "T-^  ^ 

o  ^  ^J2  n  ^ 

*— t  T3  us*  X>  »ss  ^ 

c:  <o  -S  S  Si  c 

•Si  £i  n  ^  ^  s 

o'O  cs  2  «^  3 

o  ,s  «  o  s 


C  o  s  G  .E  Tt 
^  g  ^  ?  •!§  <S 

cj  cj  t- jov!i/§ 

goo  S'l^H 

=.'3  ci,  ^  o  a 

CJ  _♦  ??.  ^  ^  -is 


o  ^  y  ^ 


«.o  ^ 


^  ^«^ 

«-   CJ  ^  rj* 

E  «  F  o 

ii?  ^  $3  c: 


f5j    f^   C5    ^ 


B 
o 


2  5$  J-:  f> 

H-i  o  S' 

o  t*  fc  S 

*c:  o  lO  o 


H  Si  S  <i>^ 

^^   is  *" 

S3  2i  ♦:* 


I 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  61 

in  quarto  at  Toledo  by  Peter  Hagenbach  by  order  of  Car- 
dinal Ximenez  in  1504^  —  Hagenbach  being  printer  by  ap- 
pointment to  the  Cardinal.  It  was  therefore  published  under 
distinguished  auspices.  Its  title-page  bears  a  coat  of  arms, 
surmounted  by  a  cardinal's  hat,  and  below,  in  a  rich,  round, 
Spanish  gothic  letter,  is  the  title  in  four  lines.  The  rest  of 
the  book  is  printed  in  a  spirited  Spanish  black-letter  set  in 
double  column — the  principal  divisions  beginning  with 
handsome  block  initials  with  black  grounds,  and  the  con- 
tents of  each  division  being  set  in  effective  lines  of  large 
black-letter  {Jig.  224).  Running-titles  are  also  composed  in 
this  large  type,  with  folios  on  right-hand  pages  only.  At 
the  beginning  and  end  of  the  book,  these  large  characters 
run  across  the  page,  giving  a  very  noble  effect.  The  beau- 
tiful "texture"  of  the  pages  of  type  makes  a  very  handsome 
book — but  one  which  is  practically  a  "fifteener"  in  gen- 
eral style. 

A  similar  black-letter  volume — an  edition  of  De  la  Na- 
tura  Angelica  by  Franc.  Ximenez  (Burgos,  1516)  —  is  inter- 
esting because  it  is  an  example  of  the  work  of  Fadrique 
de  Basilea,  a  famous  printer,  and  one  of  the  few  in  Spain 
who,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  used  roman  type  for  entire 
books.  Not  so  fine  as  the  preceding,  it  is  much  the  same 
in  type  and  arrangement,  except  that  the  folios,  similarly 
placed,  are  set  in  enormous  capitals  which  much  disfigure 
the  page. 

"George  Coci,  Aleman,"  who  acquired  the  Hurus  office 
about  1506,  and  whom  Haebler  calls  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated printers  of  the  century,  issued  some  good  editions 
of  the  classics  at  Saragossa  in  the  early  sixteenth  century. 

'  Of  the  volumes  chosen  as  examples  of  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth 
century  Spanish  printing,  some  may  be  found  in  the  Ticknor  Collection  of 
books  on  Spanish  literature  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  and  others  in  the 
Library  of  Harvard  College. 


62  PRINTING  TYPES 

His  Livy  of  1520 — Las  quatorze  decadas  de  Tito  Livio — 
is  magnificent.  It  contains  the  first  example  of  "colour 
printing,"  as  we  now  understand  it,  that  I  have  found  in  a 
Spanish  book.  The  title-page  —  a  huge  armorial  device 
surrounded  with  the  collar  of  the  Golden  Fleece  —  has  be- 
neath it  a  scroll  on  which  is  the  title  and  "privilege"  in  five 
lines  of  gothic  letter,  printed  in  red.  The  arms  above  are 
in  four  colours,  black,  red,  yellow,  and  green,  printed  from 
wood-blocks.  The  text  appears  in  a  beautiful,  rather  con- 
densed gothic  type,  closely  set  {fig.  225).  The  titles  of  the 
chapters  are  composed  in  a  larger  size  of  much  the  same 
font.  Fine  woodcuts  extending  the  full  width  of  the  page 
are  very  freely  introduced,  and  accord  splendidly  with  the 
type  of  the  book.  Haebler  calls  it  one  of  Coci's  most  splen- 
did productions,  and  certainly  it  is  a  sumptuous  perform- 
ance— of  its  kind.  All  the  books  printed  by  Coci  that  I  have 
seen  are  interesting  and  distinguished. 

In  another  fine  book — Pulgar'sii"/  GranCapitan — printed 
by  Jacob  Cromburger  at  Seville  in  1527,  much  the  same 
gothic  type  is  used — a  little  rounder,  perhaps — not  so  well 
printed  or  so  finely  imposed.  The  title  is  very  characteris- 
tic— a  large  coat  of  arms,  above  three  lines  of  tide  and  two 
lines  of  "privilege,"  all  set  in  black-letter  —  the  whole  sur- 
rounded with  rough  woodcut  borders.  On  the  text  pages 
{fig.  226),  the  notes  or  glosses  are  set  in  a  smaller  size  of 
gothic  type.  Many  of  the  Spanish  romances  of  the  class  of 
Amadis  de  Gaul  (for  instance,  an  illustrated  small  folio  edi- 
tion of  1535)  were  printed  by  Cromburger,  and  had,  typo- 
graphically, a  finish  and  richness  of  appearance  in  contrast 
to  like  editions  by  other  printers.  They  deserve  careful  at- 
tention. 

These  books  are  good  examples  of  the  earlier  form  of 
Spanish  volume,  and  their  style  survived  in  certain  classes 


P    O   5^ 

pt  ^  K 

^§« 

ail 


f^    Q    *^    *^     <i>  •*»     •■^     f"^ 

%>    *>-      l^T       f^        ^^       **^        ^^        ^^ 


'«^  ^  r*  >»■  ii  :±f  TT 

•ii^  *-i  <i>  <j>  n  <i>  *v? 


^^^^WT'f 


r5  "S  <J>  n   ^  *<3"  5^  2  S 


#047. 

C3laa  figuientee  slofaeque  enlaemar^ 

gars  Defta  obza  vaifon  para  oeclarar  algunos  pafTos  Delia  ercurc8:a  I03 
quelasCojonicasromanasno^anletdo.ConotrasDcclaradonesque 
endla  ercriuiovnletrado.dnombjeodqualnomaHifefto  po?  temo:  oda 
tempeftadodaslen^^uasDdosmurmUradojes  que  carecetioefcntido  cort 
objas/E  no  con  palabias, 

,  3n  mut  gran  rason  fobc^ 

Irano  felto?.  ^ueftra  mageftad  )©£SS€@ 

CapojdertofidoEfueraresuiivtilalo  realftie.  JScapalS 
J  otTO'€paininUndas:o''^amienionendtuuiera  Cbebano0:muFe)c 

[parafenoieardrdlanteqodmando  Dd  mundo  celcnte  varon-.anff 

_,  r-^-.-.^-^j^ia  viieftraCat^olica  H^agdtad  queda.ypoz  cneifccboociae  ar 

fer Mil )uilo fu DilTeo  ( con  cuedofo  cu^dado)  a pnefla  bufque ciiel  gran  »" je  como  en  I09 


3inc6Ddla/menorcabalafeDdaBcorasbuena8:po2quequantoma8)uta8  ucrm'a  gran  brfto« 

^Claras a nueftj a  vida  Ton  :tantoma8le]L-08Ecrcura8lo8€rcuros  Ia8cuen  m.Wei  quaioefus 
tan.'eanb:cucopo:quenoa^palab:asquebaftenaponerentanalroem  "'ucbos^^^^^^ 

loquatorcqmerecr(TeuirvidaDetandarovaron:Ddqualenla6ma8par^°^°^^^J2f^^^^^ 
tcsDdamifma  ytalia valientes^JEftonadojescodiciadoenfal^ar  lafama  learoiseeicofui  W 
conla3obja8Defte^Uurtre|Capitancnp:ofatenmetrol?an  efcritoDe m  Uofrominoconios 
figurarcfplandoj/linage/riquejas/tdaridadoeglojiatqueganoccnbon  Eacedemoios  po:- 
dadba3anasoeguerra':trato80cpa5X9fiieDetatovalo:  d  p:edoque  queruegcnrcs  fecf 
ganoendlaqucrun6b2enoreamataratntoda0la8edades:puc8qoEedo  J^g^^^^^^^ 
fuscnemigoadnobjeoegranCapiranatdiionjauan.e^pJopnoreE'jg^^^^^^^^ 
naturalfeno?:con  masdrc^oenapolesocn  J^adnqueoearagon  leoie  ^  dceoeciaroicscof 
ron  tanto bcnojquantolomanifiellan  ':Di3en  lospjiuilegiosque  Depart  ra:qios  contrarioff 
reocru9eftado8^feaojio3leDieron:icuemaefta8letra8qjcdreEiCafl?o  auiiacozdadorpu 


lico  V  vueftra  altC3a  enibiaron  ala  epcdentc Duquefa  fu  muger:  i oelos pje^  bucado  ganando  (3 
uilec^io6Derolo8D08.pojnoocuparpo:nela8cabcga8'irimlo8D€iosj)U^:jw^^^^^^ 
cades  DeSantangdO':Scrapo:rerlagrande3aDerualtocmiotal:qmcJ^'^^^^^^^^^ 


gp:emio emrerirlosaqui.^nloqualfe vera fer mudpo maslo  queen  poco  ^ biiosoeioe vena. 
DapdreDi3equequanto9quiDdrgercnue.iCuEoti'afIado  esellc.  aoe  conmaeoerro 

^  ^         ^  -1    -I  >■  caraS;beba9:o:l9 


qualcaafalosrurosrcdbi'ct'ontalcozai'econc 


j06.SegBnd3  que  con  tree  AM 


DeohTsTcacoccVuaUovcdopzofperamcntcalagranbaefteDeld 
qu3lc9er9^&'lrfer0aento0&ccauaUo:'r,]cj:mj.milpeone6:Delqa9lfclccnanc9Oudoacomererrerpe« 

rernalFc  todasaqilaspartcsDdmHndoquecuentaiaomtofcurao.  ^ 


226.  GofAfc  Ti//?e  used  by  Cromburger,  Seville^  1527  {reduced) 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  63 

of  literature  almost  through  the  sixteenth  century.  All  of 
them  were  set  in  gothic  types ;  but  the  earliest  type  used 
in  Spain  was  roman,  and  the  most  famous  book  of  the 
sixteenth  century — the  Complutensian  Polyglot  —  largely 
employed  it. 

This,  the  first  Polyglot  Bible,  the  world  owes  to  Cardi- 
nal Ximenez,  who,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  produced  it  "to 
revive  the  hitherto  dormant  study  of  Holy  Scripture."  It  is 
in  six  folio  volumes.  In  the  first  volume,  the  title  appears  in 
medium  sizes  of  Spanish  gothic  type  arranged  in  an  in- 
verted pyramid  placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  page ;  and  above 
it,  printed  in  red,  are  the  arms  of  Cisneros  surmounted  by 
a  cardinal's  hat.  At  the  top  of  the  title-page,  which  is  sur- 
rounded with  a  border  of  decorative  strips  of  ornament,  a 
four-line  verse  appears,  in  a  smaller  size  of  the  gothic  type 
used  below.  The  prologue  and  introductory  matter  are  set 
in  a  very  handsome  and  Italian  roman  type,  with  head-lines 
of  the  fine  gothic  letter  used  in  the  title  {Jig.  227).  Then 
follows  the  polyglot  Pentateuch  in  five  divisions  —  first, 
Hebrew,  in  the  outside  column ;  second,  the  Latin  Vulgate, 
in  a  narrow  column  placed  in  the  middle,  set  in  roman;  and 
on  the  inside,  in  irregularly  spaced  black-letter,  a  new  Latin 
translation  of  the  Greek  Septuagint,  which  is  printed  be- 
neath it  in  a  crabbed  Greek  type.  The  three  versions  are 
printed  parallel  to  one  another,  line  for  line.  Short  lines  in 
the  Vulgate  version  are  filled  out  with  ornaments  made  up 
of  circles,  and  a  similar  trick  is  resorted  to  in  the  Hebrew 
text.  In  a  block  on  the  inside  of  right-hand  pages  is  a 
Chaldee  version  in  Hebrew  characters,  and  beside  it  a  block 
of  black-letter  Latin  translation,  left-hand  pages  reversing 
this  arrangement.  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  roots  are  given  in 
the  margin.  Granted  the  great  difficulty  of  the  problem  from 
the  type-setting  point  of  view,  and  the  necessary  variations 


64  PRINTING  TYPES 

of  colour  of  Hebrew,  roman,  black-letter,  and  black-letter 
with  Greek  types  interlined — not  to  mention  side-notes — 
the  general  solidity  of  effect  is  remarkable.  Still  more  re- 
markable is  the  evenness  of  colour  in  the  presswork.  This 
first  volume  completes  the  Pentateuch. 

In  the  second  volume  of  the  Old  Testament  the  page  is 
made  up  of  three  columns  of  equal  length,  though  of  un- 
equal width — Hebrew,  Latin,  and  Greek  and  Latin  inter- 
lined. The  third  volume  runs  on  in  much  the  same  manner, 
except  that  there  is  no  Hebrew  text  for  certain  books ;  and 
the  fourth,  similarly  arranged,  completes  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  Apocrypha — the  latter  given  in  two  versions  only. 
Minute  letters  refer  from  every  word  in  the  Vulgate  to 
every  Hebrew  word  throughout  the  Old  Testament.^ 

In  the  New  Testament,  which  occupies  the  fifth  volume 
(though  in  point  of  date  the  first  volume  printed),  no  rubri- 
cation  appears  on  the  title-page,  and  the  text-pages  are  di- 
vided into  columns  of  Greek  and  Latin — the  Latin  being 
set  in  roman.  In  this — the  first  printed  Greek  Testament 
(though  not  published  until  after  Froben's  1516  edition, 
edited  by  Erasmus) — ^the  wonderful  Greek  type  is  what  all 
Greek  type  should  be  in  style — a  reversion  to  the  fine  early 
Greek  manuscript-hands.  It  is  very  open  and  clear  in  de- 
sign and  of  a  beautifully  even  strength  of  line  throughout. 
Reference  is  made  by  small  gothic  letters  above  the  text 
repeated  in  alphabetical  order,  from  every  word  in  the  Greek 
text  to  each  word  in  the  Vulgate.  While  this  somewhat  dis- 
figures the  page,  it  is  so  cleverly  managed  that  it  does  not 
obtrude  itself.  To  see  how  the  famous  Greek  types  look, 
normally  printed,  one  must  study  such  pages  as  that  from 
which  our  illustration  is  taken  {Jig.  228).  The  sixth  volume 

'  For  a  detailed  account  of  the  Complutensian  Polyglot,  see  J.  P.  R.  Lyell's 
Cardinal  Ximenes,  Illastrated,  London,  1917,  pp.  24-52. 


o 


CS   b;  its    <j 


C 


cr 


O    .\\     ♦^ 


oj    n    rt 

c 


3*  .-2    ^^ 


*—    o  .^ 


o.  t: 
IP  2 


>-•    c    r!    ►i* 


J^  T,  .^  -zj 


=  ■5 


§1 
o  S  ^ 

4-    t!  _f=: 


CO 

3 


£ 
o 


o 
o 


o 


O 

3 

o 


2  §•§ 

0.^5  ;52 

v;   5^   «« 
0  ^   a. 

«    d 

o^  o 

«    3    « 

»  a"  t: 


o 


■^2  »  2  ct;  ^  -S 

W  ^     ^     H     C3 

S3    ^    »4    o 
*r:  c:  »i:i  "j: 

3  .S    O    **    C3 


S  -^  «o 
3    u  Is 

♦TV   O  -T3 

ts  e  t3 


C     OT    g  -J3 

w    3    i;  ^  I"*/    _ 
c  ^   S  ^  "S  "^   « 


>-^         •-? 


« 


O  S  irt    t>^  2  *2 

'C  o^  .y  ^  C  w 

CU  «    «    *-    O    O 


S 

CO 


CO 


c 


o 

o  iH 
«  o 

ti  « 


J2   o  .•-  .y 

c  kO  -t3  "t; 

M      ^      O  ""^ 

3  3  2 

<  "TS  -5 

r«      3  Ct 


?«a      S 


Dq 


2         -^ 
ff  „ 


tS 


^ 

^•"S^ 


■^ 

^ 


i^'iS  H^O  §<<  H  S^^g^g-o  ^^  |3-x    ^H 

5  >.s  >  to^s  g.o  g_S  hk  H5'S-a-o-g-2 

a^  o  i«<5  c^??  ==^*3  ^ji?^  o  ^^'»  *  CL,^  K  a 


4 


s 
^ 


.^ 


a. 


CI) 

00 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  65 

ends  the  work  with  a  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  vocabulary, 
indexes,  etc. 

The  whole  undertaking,  which  occupied  about  fifteen 
years,  was  started  in  1502,  and  the  printing,  begun  at  Alcala 
in  1514,  was  finished  in  July,  1517,  "by  that  honourable 
man  Arnald  Guillen  de  Brocar,  master  of  the  art  of  print- 
ing"—  as  indeed  he  was.  Ximenez  died  in  1517.  Leo  X 
sanctioned  the  issue  of  600  copies  of  the  work  in  1520,  but 
apparently  it  was  not  published  until  1522.  It  cost  Ximenez 
50,000  gold  ducats,  to-day  equivalent  to  considerably  over 
a  million  dollars.  The  magnitude  of  the  task,  the  efficiency 
of  the  plan,  the  even  quality  of  its  execution,  make  the  be- 
holder pause.  It  was  a  splendid  conception,  and  it  was 
splendidly  carried  out. 

A  book  of  four  hundred  or  more  double-column  pages, ru- 
bricated on  almost  every  page,  is  the  volume  which  Haebler 
praises  so  highly,  printed  by  Brocar  at  Logrofio  (where 
he  also  had  a  press)  in  1517.  It  is  a  folio  edition  in  black- 
letter  of  Perez  de  Guzman's  Crbnica  del  Rey  Don  Juan  II, 
and  is  very  fine  of  its  kind,  though  not  so  fine,  in  spite  of  its 
lavish  use  of  red  ink,  as  Coci's  Livy  of  1520  or  the  books 
of  the  Granada  printer  Sancho  de  Nebrija  (or  Nebrissen- 
sis).  It  was  executed  by  order  of  Carlos  V,  to  \vhom  Brocar 
was  appointed  printer  on  his  first  visit  to  Spain  in  that 
year. 

Haebler  tells  us  that  a  series  of  books  was  printed  at 
Granada  by  Sancho  de  Nebrija,  "executed  with  the  utmost 
accuracy  and  splendour,"  between  1533  and  1552.  This 
printer's  books  are  interesting  because  of  their  early  and 
good  use  of  roman  fonts — type  clear  enough  to  be  perfectly 
readable,  but  without  much  distinction  or  beauty.  Several 
books  by  the  then  celebrated  grammarian,  Antonio  de  Ne- 
brija (otherwise  known  as  Antonio  Martinez  de  Jaravia), 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  67 

by  Antonio  de  Nebrija — a  small  folio  printed  at  Alcala  by- 
Miguel  de  EgLiia,  successor  to  Brocar,  in  1525,  with  text  in 
roman,  surrounded  with  notes  set  in  a  nervous  and  beauti- 
fully cut  Spanish  gothic  type — is  also  of  interest,  both  for 
its  arrangement  —  very  romantic  for  a  grammar — and  its 
fine  fonts.  The  same  author's  edition  of  Persius,  printed  at  Se- 
ville in  1504  by  Cromburger,  is  another  instance  of  text  set 
in  roman,  surrounded  by  notes  in  an  intricate  weave  of  deli- 
cate gothic  characters.  Its  title-page  (an  inscription  in  roman 
capitals  in  a  panel  of  ornament)  is  wonderfully  handsome. 
In  the  smaller  books  later  printed  by  Sancho  de  Nebrija  at 
Granada,  he  seems  to  have  relied  on  roman  both  for  text 
and  notes ;  as  in  his  father's  Hymnorum  Recognition  printed 
in  1549.  Its  title-page — though  but  a  feeble  copy  of  similar 
Basle  books  —  and  index  will  repay  examination. 

One  of  the  few  beautiful  Spanish  books  of  the  late  six- 
teenth century,  printed  in  a  pure  and  elegant  roman  type, 
was  Alvar  Gomez  de  Castro's  De  Rebus  Gestis  a  Francisco 
Ximenio^  Cisnerio — a  contemporary  life  of  Cardinal  Xime- 
nez,  still  held  as  a  very  high  authority.  This  book  might 
have  come  from  an  Italian  press,  so  spirited  and  delicate  is 
the  roman  font  used  for  it,  compared  with  most  contempo- 
rary Spanish  roman  fonts,  and  so  simple  and  elegant  is  it  in 
composition  and  imposition.  To  be  sure,  the  tide-page  bears 
a  pretentious  wood-block,  out  of  keeping  with  the  severity 
of  the  text-pages,  and  the  prefatory  matter  is  obtrusive. 
But  its  simple  text-pages  are  almost  Jensonian  in  their  re- 
liance upon  pure  typography  for  beauty.  The  book  was 
printed  by  Andres  de  Angulo  at  Alcala  in  1569  {Jig.  230). 

§2 
The  great  Spanish  book  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
of  every  century  since,  is  Don  Qiiixote.  The  first  edition  of 


68  PRINTING  TYPES 

the  First  Part  was  published  by  Juan  de  laCuesta  at  Madrid 
in  1605.  It  is  a  square  octavo.  As  to  its  type-setting,  after 
some  preHminary  matter  in  a  dull,  heavy  roman  type,  and 
in  an  irregular  italic,  and  the  familiar  introductory  poetry 
addressed  to  Don  Quixote  and  Sancho  Panza,  arranged  al- 
ternately in  roman  and  italic,  comes  the  text.  This  is  very 
solidly  set  in  the  same  heavy  roman,  but  is  managed  most 
simply,  and  I  think  for  that  day  it  was  probably  considered 
a  very  modern  sort  of  book.  The  argument  of  each  chapter 
is  set  in  italic ;  the  text,  as  I  have  said,  in  a  rough  old  stjde 
roman  {Jig.  23 1).  When  poetry  occurs  in  the  text, it  is  some- 
times composed  in  a  pretty  and  gay  sort  of  swinging  italic 
letter,  sometimes  in  italic  of  a  more  commonplace  cut.  Each 
Book  starts  with  a  head-Hne  of  type  ornament,  and  its  text 
begins  with  a  large  block  initial.  At  the  end  of  the  book  the 
"epitaphs,"  etc.,  are  set  in  italic  with  roman  head-lines,  and 
a  table  of  chapters,  chiefly  in  italic,  closes  this  First  Part. 

The  Second  Part,  issued  at  Madrid  by  the  same  pub- 
lisher in  1615,  resembles  the  First,  except  that  chapter  head- 
ings are  smaller,  and  poetry  is  sometimes  in  single  column 
in  a  roman  letter  like  the  text,  or  in  double  column  in  a  size 
of  italic  slightly  smaller.  It  is  a  respectable  production, — 
nothing  more, — but  more  readable  than  most  seventeenth 
century  editions  of  novels,  which  were  usually  very  poorly 
printed.^ 

*  The  Hispanic  Society  of  America  has  reprinted  in  facsimile  a  number  of 
rare  and  interesting  Spanish  books,  the  entries  in  their  catalogue  of  publica- 
tions i-unning  to  some  sixty-five  titles.  Facsimiles  are  supplied  of  Juan  de  la 
Cuesta's  first  Madrid  edition  of  Don  Quixote,  both  first  and  second  parts, 
which  appeared  in  1605  and  1615,  respectively.  Title-pages  of  611  editions 
of  Don  Quixote,  extending  from  1605  to  1905,  are  reproduced  in  facsimile  in 
Iconografia  de  las  Ediciones  del  Quijote  de  Miguel  de  Cervantes  Saavedra 
(Barcelona,  1905) .  Spanish  and  Catalan  titles  alone  run  to  233  numbers.  Al- 
most a  history  of  Spanish  printing  after  1600  can  be  had  by  comparing  the 
different  editions  from  its  first  publication  to  the  present  day. 


Cr'"-'   rt    -^     Oh  a   '^     w     O   -^     O     O     nj     d     J^    bf) 

rt    ;>    G  -^    ^    VH    G    «    O/dS    S  0:^    5    m    ^    o 


G     J-i    p-G-Tj'^-^n-J    *-»rG^    H     O^^    C-! 

^  Si  y^  !^  S  G  -q  g-;^^  2  g.R 


I 


H    ri  "^    ^--^  j^     o    J-"     O    G    u    «3         "^ 


•^  s  ^^  2  ^  -  s  ^-^^  .s  -i  -3  g  S  g.  J    , 

;^  S^  ?5  >  .S^  o  g  o   o  ,.^  t^  ctj  ^^  o  o  2 


Quixote  de  la  Adancha.        ij% 

prouecho,di  en  olu  jdalla.y  fi  algo  fe  me  acucrdajC  j 
aquello  del  fobajad3,digo  del  fobcrana  fcnora ,  v  lo 
Tkimo ,  vucdro  hadala  muerte^  cl  caualiero  de  la 
trlfte  Figura.  Y  enmedio  deflas  dos  cofas  ,  le  oufe 
snas  de  trczientas  a!n)as,y  vida$,y  ojos  mios. 

Cd^,XXXL  De  losfklrofos  razpnamkntoSi^He  pdjfa  * 
ton  entre  don  Quixote ^y  Smcho  ^an^afn  efcudt-^ 
sroicon  otrosfucejjos, 

O  D  O  elTo  no  me  defcontenra  ,  prod* 
gue  adelanccjdixo don  Quixote.  LlegaC 
te,  yquchaziaaquelia  rcynadelahef 
morura?a  buen  fegur  o,quc  la  halladc  en» 
farcandoperlas  ,  obordandoalgunaemprcfa  ,  con 
oro  de  canutil!o,para  eQe  fu  cautiuo  caualiero.  No 
la  halle^rcfpondio  Sancho^fino  ahechando  dos  anc- 
gas  de  tr  jgo,en  vn  corral  de  fucafa.  Pucs  haz  cuen- 
ea,dixodonQuijcotc,quclo8granosdeaqueitr3go, 

erangranosdeperlaSjtocadosdefusmanos.  Yfi  mi- 
rafte  amigo,cl  trigo  era  candeal,o  crecheHNo  era  {i 
iiorubion,rerpondioSanclio.  Pocs  yotcaffcguro, 
dJxo  don  Quixote  ,  que  ahcchado  por  fus  mano$ 
hizopancandealjfindudaalguna'.pefopalTaadcIati- 
«c,  QuandolediOe  mi  carta bcfola^  Pufofela  fobre 
la  cabe^a^hizo  alguna  ccremonia,dign3  de  is\  carc^f 
o que hizo?  Quando  y o fc la yua a dar^rcfpodio San 
,cho,  ellaeriauaeniafugadelmeneo  ,  de  vnabuena 
parte  de  trigo,quc  tenia  en  la  critsa.  Y  dixome,  po* 
ncd  amigo  elTa  carta  fobre  aquel  coflal,  ^  no  la  pue  • 
dblcer  hafla  que  acabe  de  acriua?  todo  lo  que  aqui 

Y  4  slial 


231.  Types  used  in  first  edition  of  Don  ^lixote 
Juan  de  la  Cuesta^  Madrid^  1605 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  69 

A  roughly  executed  but  fine  seventeenth  century  book 
is  the  folio  edition  of  Pedro  Salazar  de  Mendoza's  Cronica 
de  el  gran  Cardenal  de  Espaha,  Don  Pedro  Gonzalez  de  Men- 
doga^  printed  by  Donna  Maria  Ortiz  de  Saravia  at  Toledo  in 
1625.  Arranged  in  double  columns,  surrounded  and  sepa- 
rated by  rules,  it  is  greatly  superior  to  most  books  of  the 
time  in  its  finished  effect  and  unity  of  conception. 

Another  more  characteristic  seventeenth  century  book — 
G.  Gonzalez  de  Avila's  Teatro  de  las  Grandezas  de  la  Villa 
de  Madrid  oi  1623 — has  an  engraved  and  much  overloaded 
title-page,  followed  by  an  equally  elaborate  engraved  dedi- 
cation, in  which  heraldic  arms  and  a  figure  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  and  Child  play  a  large  part;  and  after  the  preHm- 
inary  "approbation"  set  in  roman  type,  and  some  italic 
which  looks  very  Italian  in  cut,  a  dedication  follows,  Al  Rey 
Nuestro  Senor^  in  handsome  old  style  letter.  The  preface  is 
set  in  old  style  roman  type,  and  then  the  grandezas  of  the 
city  are  described  in  five  hundred  or  more  folio  pages,  gen- 
erally in  double  columns  of  roman  type  with  italic  cap- 
tions. Awkward  and  over-large  ornaments  appear  here  and 
there.  Decorations  made  up  of  florets  appear  occasionally. 
The  only  thing  consistent  throughout  is  lack  of  unity  and 
taste!  — like  poor  seventeenth  century  printing  everywhere. 
The  book  was  issued  at  Madrid  by  Tomas  Junta,  royal 
typographer. 

Francisco  de  los  Santos'  interminable  Descripcion  breve 
del  Monasterio  de  S.  Lorenzo  el  Real  del  Escorial^  called  by 
him  ''''unica  maravilla  del  mundo''''  (and  by  others  the  eighth), 
written  after  the  completion  of  the  Pantheon  in  1654,  was 
printed  at  the  Imprenta  Real  (which  I  take  to  be  merely  a 
term)  in  1657.  This  is  a  like  book  to  the  Grandezas^  though 
a  better  one.  It  is  set  in  a  handsome  old  style  roman  type 
with  patches  of  italic  here  and  there.  The  presswork,  how- 


70  PRINTING  TYPES 

ever,  is  miserable  —  most  uneven  in  colour.  The  translation 
of  royal  bones  to  their  gilt  and  marble  charnel-house — 
corona  de  esta  maravilla — and  the  discourses  delivered  on 
the  occasion,  close  with  a  touch  of  horror  a  respectable  and 
not  very  inspiriting  piece  of  printing.  A  copy  of  the  1667 
edition  formed  part  of  the  library  of  Samuel  Pepys. 

The  first  edition  of  Antonio  de  Solis'  Historia  de  la  Con- 
quista  de  Mexico,  printed  at  Madrid  by  Bernardo  de  Villa- 
Diego,  printer  to  his  Majesty,  in  1684,  is  a  good  example  of 
a  late  seventeenth  century  folio.  The  title-page,  set  almost 
wholly  in  various  sizes  of  roman  capitals,  is  surrounded  with 
a  badly  printed  type-border.  Then  follow  approbations,  civil 
and  religious,  among  which  appear  dedications  to  the  King 
and  the  Count  of  Oropesa,  by  whose  hands  (the  title-page 
tells  us)  this  volume  was  laid  at  the  Royal  Feet.  The  work 
itself  is  set  in  double  column  in  a  rather  fine  roman  letter, 
interspersed  with  masses  of  a  vivacious  condensed  italic, 
not  without  charm  (Jig.  232).  The  book,  which  is  a  late  ex- 
ample of  many  similar  volumes,  is  interesting  to  compare, 
both  as  to  type  and  arrangement,  with  Sancha's  edition 
of  Solis,  printed  at  the  height  of  the  "revival  of  printing" 
in  the  reign  of  Carlos  III. 

§3 

For  eighteenth  century  Spanish  printing,  our  first  exam- 
ple is  a  book  printed  at  Madrid  in  1726  by  Francesco  del 
Hurio,  printer  to  the  Spanish  Academy — a  folio  Diccion- 
ario  de  la  lengua  Castellana  in  six  volumes.^  Its  title-page  is 

In  a  set  of  this  Dictionary,  given  to  the  Libi-ary  of  Harvard  College  in  1767 
by  Tliomas  Hollis,  a  manuscript  note  from  the  donor  reads :  "This  Dictionary 
is  much  esteemed.  There  are  good  books  in  Spanish  and  I  was  willing  to  send 
it;  that,  as  the  N.  Americans,  many  of  them,  are  likely,  more  than  ever,  to 
partake  of  Spanish  Wealth,  some  of  them  may  also  partake  in  Spanish  Wis- 
dom and  Literature." 


Dlfictilta' 
its  de  la 
Hiftortagi- 


HISTORIA 

DE  LA  CONQVISTA, 

POBLACION,Y  PROGRESSOS 
D  E     L  A 

AMERICA  SEPTENTRIONAL, 

CONOCIDA  POR  EL  NOMBR.E 
DE  NUEVA  ESPANA, 

LIBRO  PRIMERO. 

CAPITVLO  PRIMERO. 

MOTIFOS,  QVE  OBLIGAN  A  TENER  POR 

mceJfariOique  fe  dhida  en  diferentes  partes  laHifioria 

de  las  Indiasypara  que^ueda  comprehenderfe, 

feverando  en  efle  animofo  dic- 
tamen,Io  que  tardo  en  defcu- 
brirfela  dilicultad ,  hemos  lei- 
do5Con  diligente  obfervacion, 
lo  que  antes ,  y  defpues  de  fus 
DecadaS)  efcrivleron  de  aque- 
llos  Defcubrimientosjy  Con- 
quiftas,diferentesPlunaas  natu- 
XalesjVeftrangerasjpero  como 
A  ias 


??/a^^51§Vro  algunos  dias 
en  nueftra  incli- 
nacion,  el  inten- 
to  de  continuar 
laHHloriaGene- 
raldelas  Indias  Occidentales, 
que  dexo  el  Chronifta  Antonio 
de  Herrera,en  el  aiio  1 5  j  4.  de 
la  Reparacion  Humana.Y  per- 


232.  Opening  of  Soils'  Conqidsta  de  Mexico  {frst  edition) 
Villa- Diego,  Madrid,  1684  {reduced) 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  71 

set  in  twenty-two  lines  of  type,  of  which  no  less  than  ten 
are  rubricated,  and  the  name  of  Philip  V  (to  whom  it  is 
dedicated)  is  as  large  as  Diccionario — the  first  word  of  the 
title.^  This  page  is  bordered  with  type  ornaments,  in  red 
and  black  —  a  fashion  much  copied  in  colonial  Spanish 
printing.  All  its  prefatory  matter  is  composed  in  various 
sizes  of  good,  but  rough,  old  style  roman  and  italic,  and  the 
Dictionary  itself  is  set  in  a  smaller  font  which  is  pleasant  in 
feehng.  In  the  main,  it  is  a  sober,  solid  piece  of  work;  but  the 
woodcut  head-pieces  and  common,  ornamented  initials  em- 
ployed are  ugly,  and  the  presswork  is  of  varying  degrees  of 
badness. 

Perez  de  Soto  of  Madrid  produced  between  1760  and 
1770  a  work  that  was  then,  and  still  is,  thought  a  great 
achievement  in  scholarly  printing — Casing  BibliofhecaAra- 
bico-Hispana  Escurialensis.  Miguel  Casiri  was  librarian  of 
the  Escorial,  and  this  is  a  catalogue  of  the  Arabic  works  in 
that  Hbrary.  It  was  printed  in  Latin  and  Arabic,  in  two 
volumes  folio,  at  the  expense  of  the  Crown  by  Soto,  who 
was  printer  by  royal  appointment.  The  roman  and  italic 
types  used  for  the  preface  and  text  of  this  book — though 
much  tried  by  too  rough  a  paper — are  remarkably  beau- 
tiful, and  appear  to  be  the  texto  shown  by  Bordazar  in  his 
Plantijicacion  of  1732.  The  Arabic  characters  accord  de- 
lightfully in  colour  with  the  roman  types.  In  spite  of  sprawl- 
ing head-pieces  and  ill-managed  preliminary  matter,  the 
work  is  a  wonderfully  able  piece  of  printing. 

Of  Joachin  Ibarra's  work,  I  describe  first  his  Sallust  — 
Cayo  Salustio  Ciispoen  Espanol — translated  from  the  Latin 
by  the  Infante  Don  Gabriel  Antonio  de  Borbon,  second  son 

'  Placing  the  dedication  on  the  title-page  was  a  characteristic  of  many  eigh- 
teenth century  Spanish  books.  To  honour  the  patron,  his  name  was  usually 
printed  in  very  large  letters,  which  sometimes  overpowered  the  title  of  the 
volume. 


72  PRINTING  TYPES 

of  Carlos  III.  It  was  printed  in  1772  and  vividly  recalls 
Bodoni's  early  manner.  The  title-page  is  entirely  engraved; 
and  besides  a  few  full-page  plates  there  are  some  hand- 
some engraved  head  and  tail-pieces  and  initials  designed 
by  the  court  painter  Maella  and  others,  which  are  agreeably 
combined  with  type.  The  Prologue  is  set  in  a  very  calli- 
graphic italic,  the  Life  in  a  beautiful  font  of  roman  —  both 
fonts  produced  by  Antonio  Espinosa.  The  Spanish  text  of 
the  book  is  set  in  the  same  beautiful  clear  italic,  in  a  larger 
size,  which  has  still  more  the  look  of  writing.  Beneath  each 
page  of  translation  the  Latin  text  appears,  set  in  a  small 
roman  letter  in  double  column.  It  is  very  even  in  composi- 
tion, if  we  allow  for  the  spaces  necessary  for  the  figures  for 
notes ;  though  an  odd  feature  is  the  equal  space  before  and 
after  commas,  semicolons,  and  colons  —  a  trick  common, 
however,  in  contemporary  work  {Jig.  233).  At  the  end  of 
two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  pages  of  text  come  notes, 
a  treatise  on  the  language  of  the  Phoenicians  by  Perez 
Bayer,^  and  an  index  —  these  being  set  in  double  column, 
in  a  small,  clear,  old  style  roman  type.  Now  this  all  sounds 
very  simple — and  it  is;  but  as  we  turn  page  after  page  of 
this  distinguished,  lively,  easily  read  italic  and  massive  ro- 
man, we  see  how  magnificent  pure  typography  was  made 
at  an  unexpected  moment  and  place.  It  is  really  the  beauty 
of  these  two  fonts  of  type  that,  above  all,  makes  such  a  won- 
derfully beautiful  book.  Like  all  great  printing,  it  looks  as 
if  it  could  not  have  been  planned  in  any  other  way;  and  like 
all  great  art,  it  appears  so  simple  that  only  after  seeing  it 
repeatedly  do  we  realize  how  fine  it  is.  One  hundred  and 
twenty  large-paper  copies  were  printed  on  a  rich,  creamy, 
hand-made  paper.  Almost  all  of  these  were  given  away  by 

My  own  copy  is  one  which  was  given  by  Bayer  to  a  certain  William  Conyng- 
ham. 


^        ^        ^ 


O 


r 


I::     ^     "^ 


^) 


^ 
^ 

ru       ^ 


:2 


'^ 


'^ 


^ 

^ 

^ 
<ii 
'U 


^ 
^ 


.^ 


^2 


^        S^        ^        ^ 


'^ 


^    o 
5   "^   ^ 

§  §  .^ 


0  t/i      ••  J 

i^  '^    '^  ^ 

(;^  ^  t:s  «S 

^  ^    o 

S;  **^     r^  ^ 

1  ^^  r^ 


2    r:i    So 


v3  '"^     5v 


5:*     >-i     to     \)  w^3     -^ 


fi^^ 


^.2 


l55 


^ 


^ 


C3 


CN 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  73 

the  translator,  Don  Gabriele,  to  the  Royal  Family,  friends  at 
court,  persons  of  distinction,  or  learned  institutions.  He  sent 
one  to  Franklin,  then  envoy  to  France,  who  (very  character- 
istically) sent  him  in  return  the  Proceedings  of  the  Amer- 
ican Congress!  The  Sallust  is  one  of  the  finest  volumes 
produced  in  any  country  during  the  eighteenth  century — 
though  it  could  have  been  printed  in  this  particular  style 
only  in  Spain. 

Of  Ibarra's  excellent  editions  of  Don  Quixote,  there  were 
three,  all  illustrated  with  copper-plates  —  that  of  1771,  in 
four  volumes  octavo ;  of  1780,  in  four  volumes  quarto ;  and 
of  1782,  in  four  volumes  octavo.  Of  these  the  1780  "Acad- 
emy Edition"  was  the  most  important — indeed,  according 
to  an  authority^  on  editions  o^ Don  Quixote,  "the  finest  edi- 
tion which  Spain  has  produced  and  perhaps  altogether  the 
most  estimable  one  we  have."  Ford,  in  his  delightful  dis- 
quisition on  the  book— ^  too  little  known — speaks  of  this  edi- 
tion, saying,  "the  finest,  that  V/(?  lujo^  was  published  for  the 
Academy  of  Madrid  by  Ibarra,  and  no  grand  library  should 
be  without  it."^  Ponz  mentions  as  in  process,  in  his  account 
of  the  Academia  Espanola,  "a  magnificent  edition  which 
is  to  be  a  definitive  one,  executed  by  the  Academy  under 
Royal  patronage."^  "There  is  now  in  hand,"  wrote  Henry 
Swinburne,  who  visited  Spain  in  1776,  "an  edition  o{  Don 
Quixote,  with  prints  taken  from  the  original  drawings  of  the 
dresses  and  landscapes  of  the  country,  which  has  employed 
all  the  best  engravers  for  some  time  past.  .  .  .  This  work 
.  .  .  does  great  honour  to  the  editors  and  printers.  .  .  .  The 
works  of  Calderon  have  been  lately  reprinted ;  and  a  new 

'  C.  R.  Ashbee. 

*  Ford's  Guide-Book  to  Travellers  in  Sfiain,  London,  1845,  Vol.  I,  pp.  314 
et  seq. 

'  Ponz's  Viage  de  Esfiana,  Madrid,  Ibarra,  1776,  Tomo  Quinto,  p.  176. 


74  PRINTING  TYPES 

edition  of  Lopez  de  la  Vega,  on  excellent  paper,  and  with 
very  fine  types,  is  in  great  forwardness :  Printing  seems  of 
late  to  be  the  branch  they  most  excel  in."  ^ 

Of  the  "Academy  Edition"  in  quarto,  the  first  volume 
opens  with  a  simple  title-page  set  entirely  in  roman  capi- 
tals, without  engraved  decoration  {Jig.  234).  The  compli- 
cated preliminary  matter  —  that  introductory  to  the  actual 
book,  and  the  preface,  poetry,  etc.,  which  form  part  of  Don 
Quixote — is  managed  with  delicacy  and  restraint,  and  with 
an  entire  absence  of  fussiness.  As  to  type,  the  opening  parts 
and  text  are  set  in  a  kind  of  modernized  old  style  roman 
and  italic  {Jig.  235).  Where  poetry  occurs  in  the  text,  it  is 
set  in  italic, as  are  the  "arguments"  to  chapters.  All  the  type 
used  in  the  book  hangs  together  wonderfully,  and  the  fonts 
are  so  full  of  colour,  and  so  original  and  lively  in  cut,  that 
they  seem  like  the  work  of  a  man  unhampered  by  profes- 
sional and  mechanical  traditions.  They  were  of  Spanish  de- 
sign, being  made  by  Geronimo  Gil  for  the  printing-house 
of  the  Biblioteca  Real,  and  loaned  to  the  Academy  for  this 
edition.  The  roman  appears  to  be  the  atanasia  gorda  en  texto 
of  the  Real  Biblioteca  specimen  of  1787. 

Engraved  head-bands,  head-pieces,  and  tail-pieces  orna- 
ment the  Prologo  de  la  Academia  and  the  text,  but  otherwise 
the  book  is  severely  plain,  except  for  a  portrait  and  many 
full-page  plates  designed  and  engraved  —  like  the  more 
agreeable  decorations — by  Spanish  artists.  Though  well 
executed,  these  large  plates  are  somewhat  stiff  and  academic 
in  design.  The  paper  used  for  this  edition  is  a  creamy  linen 
(made  for  it  at  the  paper  mills  of  Joseph  Florens  in  Cata- 
lufia);  the  ink  a  vivid  black;  the  presswork  clear  and  re- 
markably even,  and  the  imposition  of  the  pages  easy  and 

Swinburne's  Tra-vels  through  S/iain,  in  the  Years  1775  and  1776  (second 
edition),  London,  1787,  Vol.  II,  p.  203. 


EL  INGENIOSO  HIDALGO 

DON  QUIXOTE 

DE  LA  MANCHA 

COMPUESTO 
POR  MIGUEL  DE  CERVANTES  SAAVEDRA. 

NUEVA    EDICION 

CORREGIDA 

POR  LA  REAL  ACADEMIA  ESPASTOLA. 

PARTE  PRIMERA. 
TOMO   I 


CON  SUPERIOR  PERMISO: 

EN  MADRID 

POR   DON  JOAQUIN    IBARRA    IMPRESOR   DE    CAMARA    DE    S,  M. 

Y   DE    LA   REAL   ACADEMIA. 

MDCCLXXX. 

234.  Title-page  of  Academy  Edition  of  Don  Quixote 
{reduced^ 


DON    Q.UIXOTE    PE    LA   MANCHA 

tan  llnda  carta  como  aquella.  ^Y  tienesia  todavia  en  la  me- 
moria ,  Sancho?  dixo  Don  Qiilxote.  No  senor  ,  respon- 
dio  Sancho ,  porque  despues  que  la  di ,  como  vi  que  no 
habia  de  ser  de  mas  provecho ,  di  en  olvidalla  :  y  si  al- 
go  se  me  acuerda ,  es  aquello  del  sobajada ,  digo  del  6b- 
berana  Senora  ^  y  lo  ultimo  :  Viiestro  hasta  la  muertCy 
El  Cahallero  de  la  Triste  Figura  :  y  en  medio  destas 
dos  cosas  le  puse  mas  de  trecientas  almas ,  y  vidas  ^  y 
ojos  mios. 

CAPITULO     XXXI. 

T)e  los  sabrosos  razonamientos  que  pasdron  entre 

Don  Qidxote  y  Sancho  Panza  sic  esciideroy 

con  otros  sucesos. 


odo  eso  no  me  descontenta,  prosigue  adelante ,  dixo 
Don  Qiiixote.  Llegaste  ^y  que  hacia  aquella  Reyna  de 
la  hermosura?  A  buen  seguro  que  la  hallaste  ensartan- 
do  perlas ,  6  bordando  alguna  empresa  con  ore  de  canu- 
tillo  para  este  su  cautivo  caballero.  No  la  halle  ^  respon- 
dio  Sancho ,  sino  ahechando  dos  hanegas  de  trigo  en  un 
corral  de  su  casa.  Pues  haz  cuenta  ,  dixo  Don  Qiiixote^ 
que  los  granos  de  aquel  trigo  eran  granos  de  perlas  to- 
cados  de  sus  manos :  y  si  miraste  ,  amigo  ^  el  trigo  era 
candealj  6  trechel?  No  era  sino  rubion,  respondio  San- 
cho. Pues  yo  te  aseguro ,  dixo  Don  Qiiixote ,  que  ahe- 
chado  por  sus  manos  hizo  pan  candeal  sin  duda  alguna; 
pero  pasa  adelante  :  quando  le  diste  mi  carta  ^besola?  ^pii- 
sosela  sobre  la  cabeza?  ^hizo  alguna  ceremonia  digna  de 
tal  carta?  {6  que  hizo?  Quando  yo  se  la  iba  a  dar,  res- 
pondio Sancho  ,  ella  estaba  en  la  fuga  del  meneo  de  una 
buena  parte  de  trigo  que  tenia  en  la  criba ,  y  dixome; 

235.  Types  used  in  Academy  Edition  of  Don  ^lixote:  Ibarra,  Madrid,  1780 

{.reduced) 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  75 

distinguished.  As  a  whole,  excepting,  perhaps,  the  full-page 
plates,  everything  prophesied  of  this  edition,  or  said  about 
it  on  its  completion,  is  true.  And  this,  the  finest  edition  of 
Do77  Quixote  that  has  ever  been  printed,  was  wholly  the 
product  of  Spanish  skill. 

Two  years  later  (1782),  Ibarra  published  his  pretty 
"reading  edition"  in  four  octavo  volumes,  printed  from  a 
somewhat  modelled  old  style  type,  very  straightforwardly 
arranged,  and  ornamented  by  many  pleasant  copper-plates. 
It  is  an  example  of  what  might  be  called  Ibarra's  quieter 
work. 

The  four  noble  volumes  of  Nicolas  Antonio's  Bibliotheca 
Hispana,  Vetus  et  JVova,  dealing  with  the  works  of  Spanish 
authors  from  the  time  of  Augustus  to  1684,  were  begun 
by  Ibarra  at  Madrid  about  1783  and  finished  by  his  widow 
in  1788.  They  are  in  folio  and  printed  throughout  in  a  series 
of  workmanhke  old  style  fonts.  These  dignified  pages,  so 
practical  in  arrangement,  are  well  imposed  and  printed  on 
a  fine  rough  linen  paper.  They  are  undecorated  save  for  the 
heraldic  trophies  on  the  title-pages,  and  in  the  second  series 
(JVova)  an  occasional  engraved  head-piece  and  initial,  which 
do  not  add  to  the  effect.  The  first  two  volumes  are  among 
the  soberest  and  most  satisfactory  of  Ibarra's  editions — 
though  the  preliminary  matter  (as  usual  with  this  printer) 
is  not  as  well  handled  as  the  text  itself.  The  second  part  of 
the  work  was  edited  by  Perez  Bayer,  who  had  a  hand  in  so 
many  of  the  great  typographical  and  literary  undertakings 
of  that  day. 

Sancha's  imprints  show  a  general  tendency  to  copy 
contemporary  French  work,  and  such  books  as  Malo  de 
Lugue's  Establecimientos  U Itramamios  de  las  Naciones  Eu- 
ropeas  of  1784,  in  five  volumes,  might  easily  be  mistaken  for 
a  French  edition  of  a  little  earlier  date.  Its  text  is  very  simply 


76  PRINTING  TYPES 

arranged  in  leaded  old  style  types,  with  plain  old  style  let- 
ters for  initials,  printed  on  good  paper,  with  ample  margins 
—  a  very  satisfactory  "  library  edition."  Las  Eroticas^  y  Tra- 
duccion  de  Boecio,  by  Villegas,  brought  out  in  1774,  are 
pretty  volumes — for  Spain — and  the  engraved  title-pages, 
with  doves,  clouds,  garlands,  torch,  and  lyre,  remind  us  of 
attractive  Parisian  volumes  of  poetry  by  fashionable  ver- 
sifiers. The  simple  pages  of  poetry,  without  decorations, 
strike  a  comparatively  modern  note  {Jig.  236).  Sancha  pub- 
lished many  such  agreeable  books. 

To  see  the  progress  that  printing  made  in  this  Spanish 
revival,  compare  Villa-Diego's  edition  of  Solis'  Historia  de 
la  Conquista  de  Mexico^  issued  at  Madrid  in  1684  {jig.  232), 
with  Sancha's  beautiful  quarto  edition  of  the  same  book, 
printed  under  distinguished  patronage,  also  at  Madrid, 
in  1783  {jig.  237).  This  is  still  considered  the  great  edi- 
tion of  Solis'  work.  The  types  used  are  frankly  old  style, 
and  of  these  the  larger  sizes  are  the  best.  Introductory  mat- 
ter fills  fifty  pages,  and  this  prefatory  material  is  divided  into 
eleven  sections.  To  arrange  it  successfully,  as  Sancha  has 
done,  would  tax  the  ingenuity  of  any  printer.  On  arriving 
at  last  at  the  History,  how  fine  it  is !  The  first  page  is  faced 
by  a  portrait  of  Cortes  after  Titian;  the  opening  page  is 
really  ornamented  by  its  engraved  head-piece  and  initial; 
the  type  of  the  text  is  a  large,  beautiful  old  style,  printed  on 
laid  paper  in  a  sharp,  brilliant  impression.  A  series  of  twenty- 
four  delightful  and  rather  ingenuous  full-page  engravings 
designed  by  Josef  Ximeno  are  scattered  through  the  work, 
each  Book  of  which  begins  with  an  engraved  head-piece 
and  ends  with  a  tail-piece.  The  engraved  lettering  beneath 
the  full-page  plates  shows  how  magnificent  was  the  style 
of  calligraphy  which  still  survived  in  Spain.  This  vol- 
ume, which  Sir  William  Stirling  Maxwell  called  "the  tri- 


(2  38) 

MONOSTROPHE  XXXV. 

A    JOVE. 

YO  apostar6  que  es  Jove 
aquel  toro,  muchacha  , 
que  i  la  SIdonia  Ninfa 
se  lleva  en  las  espaldas. 
El  denodadamcnte 
los  hondos   mares  nada, 
y  presuroso  hiende 
.   las  ondas  con  sus  patas : 
y  ^  no  ser  el ,  no  hubiera 
toro  que  de  las  vacas 
asi  dejara  el  pucsto , 
ni  el  Ponto  asi  nadara, 

MONOSTROPHE    XXXVL 

DEL  VIVIR    REGALADO. 

DE   retores  maestros 
peritos  y  elegantes 
^que  nne  ensenan  las  reglas^ 

1  que  las  necesidades  ? 

2  De  que  tantas  arengas 
que  persuadan  facil , 

$i  ninsuna  me  vuelve 

^  dul- 

236.  Type  used  by  A.  de  Sancha^  Madrid^  1774 


HISTORIA 

DE  LA  CONdUISTA,  POBLACION 

Y  PROGRESOS  DE  LA  AMERICA 

SEPTENTRIONAL, 

CONOCIDA  FOR  EL  NOMBRI  DE  NUEVA  ESPANA. 

L  I  B  R  O    I. 
CAPITULO    PRIMERO. 

MOTJVOS  QUE  OBLIGAN  A  TENER 

for  necesario  que  se  divida  en  diferentes  partes 
la  Historia  de  las  Indias ,  far  a  que  fueda  com- 
frehenderse, 

\\   Uro  akunos  dias  en  nuestra  incllnacion  Dificuitades 

X,  O  .  1    TT'  •  1   delaHlscO' 

el  intento  de  contmuar  la  Historia  general  ria  general 
de  las  Indias  occidentales,  que  dexo  el  cro 
nista  Antonio  de  Herrera  en  el  ano  mil 

quinientos  cincuenta  y  quatro  de  la  Reparacion  hu- 

TOM.  I.  A 


237.  Opening  of  Soils'  Conquista  de  Mexico 
Sancha,  Madrid,  1783  {reduced) 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  77 

umph  of  the  press  of  Sancha,"  much  increases  one's  respect 
for  him. 

Benito  Monfort's  edition  of  Juan  de  Mariana's  Historia 
General  de  Espaha,  printed  at  Valencia  in  two  quarto  vol- 
umes in  1783,  is  a  really  fine  book,  though  far  less  elegant 
and  studied  than  Sancha's  Mexico.  The  title-page,  with  its 
brilliant  copper-plate  heraldic  vignette,  is  effective,  though 
its  mixture  of  sizes  and  kinds  of  types  is  not  worthy  of  the 
text-pages.  A  prospectus  of  the  work  (which  was  published 
by  subscription)  alludes  to  the  encouragement  that  Carlos 
III  gave  to  printing,  as  one  of  the  means  of  its  publica- 
tion. For  it  appears  that  the  King  —  "to  encourage  an  art 
and  business  which  so  greatly  contributes  to  general  cul- 
ture, to  the  promotion  of  science,  and  to  useful  knowledge" 
—  permitted  Monfort  to  reprint  it  in  spite  of  some  legal  ob- 
stacles; His  Majesty  having  also  in  mind  the  reestablish- 
ment  of  printing-houses  that  had  formerly  existed  in  al- 
most all  Spanish  cities,  in  many  of  w  hich  the  industry 
had  died  out.  Twelve  pages  of  subscribers'  names,  which 
attest  the  results  of  this  prospectus,  are  followed  by  a  pro- 
logue, an  account  of  Mariana  and  his  works,  notes  thereto, 
etc.  This  preliminary  matter  is  not  successfully  managed, 
but  the  text  itself,  in  a  good,  modelled,  late  eighteenth  cen- 
tury old  style  font,  is  well  arranged  and  very  handsome. 
The  paper  and  ink  are  excellent,  the  imposition  most  ele- 
gant, and  as  a  whole  it  is  a  successful  piece  of  printing. 

Monfort's  1779  edition  of  Perez  de  Guzman's  Crbnica  de 
Don  Juan  II  is  a  readable  folio.  The  title-page,  to  be  sure, 
is  a  wretched  mixture  of  shaded,  decorated,  and  plain 
roman  capitals,  with  italic  added  thereto;  but  the  simple 
pages  of  text,  set  in  double  column,  with  chapter  heads  in 
roman  capitals,  and  the  argument  of  each  chapter  in  italic, 
are  dignified  in  effect;  the  presswork  is  fair,  the  paper  de- 


78  PRINTING  TYPES 

lightful.  The  same  printer's  edition  of  Pulgar's  Civnica  de 
los  Reyes  CatbUcos  of  1780  shows  progress,  and  has  a  much 
better  and  simpler  title-page.  It  is  ornamented  here  and 
there  with  copper-plates,  evidently  of  Spanish  origin.  The 
text  is  arranged  much  as  the  Jiian  II.  The  type  in  both 
books  is  a  very  Spanish-looking  early  "old  style,"  though 
the  hand-made  paper  on  which  it  is  printed  makes  it  look 
rougher  than  it  is.  Where  they  go  to  pieces  is  in  the  intro- 
ductory and  "displayed"  typography. 

The  book  most  quoted  as  an  example  of  Monfort's  print- 
ing is  Perez  Bayer's  learned  Latin  work  on  Hebrew-Sa- 
maritan coins — De  JVumis  Hehrmo-Samantams — a  quarto 
printed  in  1781.  The  type  is  about  fourteen-point  in  size, 
well  leaded,  with  some  Hebre^v  introduced.  The  notes  are 
set  in  smaller  type,  in  double  column,  at  the  bottom  of  the 
page.  Here  and  there,  small  engraved  plates  of  coins  are  in- 
serted in  the  text  with  great  taste.  There  are  also  a  few  full- 
page  plates.  The  book  ends  w  ith  notes,  set  in  a  handsome 
roman  type,  and  an  index  {^fig.  238). 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  this  piece  of  printing  had 
great  reputation  at  that  day.  In  the  first  place,  the  types 
(the  texto  of  the  specimen  shown  in  Bordazar's  Plantijica- 
cion\  beautifully  displayed  by  Latin,  are  of  severe  classical 
form  and  lighter  in  effect  than  most  types  used  in  Spain  at 
that  time.  They  have,  especially  lines  set  in  capitals,  a  noble 
"inscriptional"  quality,  and  all  that  Monfort  had  to  do  to 
make  a  masterpiece  was  to  stick  to  them!  But  he  lacked 
the  courage  and  taste  to  do  this  in  the  preliminary  matter. 
Then,  too,  the  engraved  initial,  head-piece,  etc.  —  attractive 
enough  in  themselves — have  nothing  to  do  with  these  dig- 
nified types.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  in  conception  im- 
mensely ahead  of  its  time  in  its  typographical  harmony 
with  the  serious  scholarship  of  Bayer's  work.  With  the  ex- 


< 


> 
Z 

w 


> 
Q 
Z 

> 

u 

H 
> 

< 


Co 

! 

o 


to 


<5a 


?3^ 


O 

^    E 


^ 


O 


O 


^     ^ 
Tj      3 


52       X 


^    O 


to 

o 

V-i 


c 

nS 


'^    ^    c 


o 


3       to 

> 

S      =3 


o    § 

"      O 
n 


O 


C/5 

o 

> 


C/5 
O 

cJ      O 


-  ^ 

/O 


C/5 

o 

u 

.  — ^ 

O 
.  -^ 

O 

CU 
<D 

to 


or) 
to 

qj 
O 

c 
d 

a 

o 
o 

r^ 

CJ 

bs:> 


o  .iq 


V3 


^P 


C/5 
O 

5 

z 


S 

V3 


<y3 


bs^ 


o 

i-i 

(L) 


o    s 
§  2 


d 
o 

B 
o  ^ 


SO 


Q  >-H 


<     5 

d 


> 

S/3 


1-4 

d 

4-* 

d 

QJ 

d 
o 


^ 


Go 

I 


::j^ 

^ 


f? 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  79 

ception  of  the  first  twelve  or  fourteen  pages,  it  is  as  classi- 
cal in  feeling  as  any  Spanish  volume  I  have  come  upon — 
except  Alvar  Gomez'  life  of  Cardinal  Ximenez,  printed  more 
than  two  hundred  years  earlier  {Jig.  230). 

This  roman  was  employed  seven  years  before  in  Yriarte's 
Oljras  Sueitas,  published  at  the  expense  of  his  friends,  and 
honoured  by  subscriptions  from  the  Infantes  Gabriel,  An- 
tonio, and  Luis.  It  is  a  most  beautiful  piece  of  printing,  and 
one  of  the  very  best  examples  of  the  Spanish  revival.  The 
delicate  but  virile  roman,  with  an  italic  superior  in  style  to 
that  used  in  the  De  Afiimis,  its  exquisite  paper,  ample,  well- 
disposed  margins,  and  the  great  reserve  of  arrangement 
make  a  distinguished  book,  and  one  of  classical  effect.  This 
came  from  the  press  of  Francisco  Manuel  de  Mena,  of 
Madrid,  in  1774,  and  suggests  how  much  good  work  was 
being  done  in  Spain,  at  that  moment,  by  printers  whose 
names  are  forgotten  (Jig.  239). 

Good  examples  of  eighteenth  century  luxurious  printing 
of  a  more  ephemeral  kind  are  the  pamphlets  for  the  Span- 
ish Academy  on  gala  occasions — orations  on  marriages  of 
the  royal  family  printed  by  the  "Imprenta"of  that  body ;  An- 
tonio Marin's  distinguished  brochure  recording  the  open- 
ing of  the  Academy  of  San  Fernando  (1752);  "relations" 
of  the  distribution  of  prizes  for  the  same  Academy,  printed 
by  Gabriel  Ramirez  in  1754,  1755,  and  1756,  including 
some  admirably  arranged  verse ;  the  Address  of  the  Acad- 
emy on  the  accession  of  Carlos  III,  by  Perez  de  Soto ;  and 
similar  examples  of  work  by  Ibarra.  Almost  all  of  these  are 
carefully  executed  from  old  style  types,  some  fine  of  their 
kind,  and  embellished  (to  use  the  word  of  that  day)  with 
handsome  copper-plate  decorations,  intended  to  resemble 
the  similar  engravings  in  current  French  books. 

It  is  because  this  eighteenth  century  revival  is  so  little 


80  PRINTING  TYPES 

known,  and  its  work  is  so  individual  and  so  good,  that  I  have 
described  at  some  length  a  number  of  its  best  books.  I  am 
tempted  to  say  that,  as  a  class,  Spanish  books  show  the  most 
characteristically  national  typography  of  Europe.  Yet,  al- 
though this  seems  so,  I  think  it  is  chiefly  because  we  are 
so  unfamiHar  with  them  that  their  peculiarities  strike  us 
freshly;  whereas  our  eyes  are  accustomed  to  the  equally 
strong  national  traits  latent  in  French  or  Italian  books  of 
corresponding  periods.  However  this  may  be,  Spanish  typog- 
raphy has  its  stately  charm;  though  its  primitive  and  un- 
compromising character  may  not  be  fully  realized  until — 
amid  a  collection  of  old  Spanish  books — one  comes  across 
some  elegant  French  version  of  a  Spanish  classic.^  This 
brings  us  back  to  European  printing  with  a  start,  and  makes 
the  old  saying  that  "Europe  ends  at  the  Pyrenees"  seem  for 
a  moment  true.  But  —  cosas  de  Espana! — there  are  those 
who  love  things  Spanish,  and  I  am  among  the  number.  For 
those  who  do  not,  in  the  phrase  of  Cervantes,  "Patience,  and 
shuffle  the  cards ! " 

II 

THE  eighteenth  century  Spanish  "specimens"  to  be 
considered  in  closing  this  chapter  are  those  of  Espi- 
nosa,  1771;  a  Barcelona  specimen  of  the  Convento  de  S. 
Joseph  of  1777;  the  first  Real  Biblioteca  specimen  of  1787; 
the  Pradell  specimen  of  1793;  Ifern's  book  of  1795;  and 
that  of  the  Imprenta  Real  of  1799  —  all  (except  the  second) 
issued  at  Madrid. 

The  first  book  is  entitled  Muestras  de  los  Caracteres  que 
sejiinden  por  direccion  de  D.  Antonio  Espinosa  de  los  Mon- 
teros  y  Abadia^  Acadejnico  de  la  Real  de  San  Fernando^  uno 

*  For  instance,  D'Herberay's  Amadis  de  Gaul,  in  four  volumes,  folio,  printed 
by  Groulleau  at  Paris,  for  V.  Sertenas,  in  1548. 


Sordidulus  salccirij  non  sordldus.  Ire  per  urbem, 
Huic  summo  pede  subsulcim  per  compita  eundunia 
Librandusque  levis  justo  moderamine  salens. 
Olii  posterior  maneat  pes  pensilis ,  anceps 
Incertusquc  vix,  donee  responsa  prioris 
Accipiat.  Non  si  Statics  coram  advocet  artem 
Sic  alcerna  pedum  vestigia  temperet,  ut  cot 
Impuras  lustrare  queat  pede  virgine  sordes. 
Dexcera  si  baculum  gescat  de  more  ministrum, 
Infido  veluti  m  oderans  in  flumine  cymbam, 
Navita  prudenci  vada  ten  tat  inhospita  cento 
Soliicitus ,  fundoque  latentia  saxa  maligno, 
Parvuia  ne  sc  epulis  pereat  faiiacibus  Argo: 
Non  aliter  baculo  caucus  rimare  sagaci 
Stagnantis  vada  c^ca  viae ,  luteasque  paludes 
Sedulus  explora ,  sitne  alto  in  gurgite  fundus, 
Ne  temere  instabili  credas  vestigia  limo, 
Ne  cedente  solo;,  tacitaque  repente  ruina 
Tibia,  sura,  genu  tumulentur  mersa  barathro. 
Nimirum  quodcunque  premunc  vestigia,  complent 
Stercora  ,  sordidiusque  ipso  vel  stercore  cosnum. 
Pestiferis  scratam  cumulis  inveneris  urbem: 
lUuvie  latet  omne  solum ,  nee  scrupulus  extat 
Sorde  carens.  Hinc  congestis  via  squallida  surgit, 
Faecibus,  hinc  foe  dis  putret  intersecta  lacunis. 

239.  Page  from  Triarte's  Ohras  Sueltas:  Mena^  Madrid^  1774 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  81 

de  sus  primeros  Pensionados,  en  Matrices  hechas  enteramente 
por  el  mismo^  con  Punzones^  que  igualmente  prosigne  traba- 
jando  hasta  concluir  un  surtido  completo.  It  shows  a  series  of 
slightly  condensed  old  style  types  which  are  remarkable 
in  one  respect — that  roman  characters  in  some  cases,  and 
italic  in  all,  have  an  extraordinary  quality  of  pen-work. 
The  italic — i.e.^  that  used  in  the  prefatory  address /^recd-f/- 
ing  the  title-page  ^jig.  240) — the  texto  gordo  and  its  cnr- 
siva  {Jigs.  241  and  242),  texto  en  Atanasia  cursiva^  cursiva 
de  letura  chica  {Jig.  243),  and  the  curious  entredos  {Jig.  244), 
are  not  altogether  pleasant  in  effect,  but  they  are  among  the 
most  thoroughly  calligraphic  characters  to  be  found  in  any 
existing  specimen-book;  and,  too,  they  are  very  Spanish 
letters.  The  italic  of  the  parangona  Salustiana  is  that  used  in 
Ibarra's  Sallust,  though  so  badly  printed  as  to  be  almost 
unrecognizable.  Spain  is  writ  large  on  every  page  of  this  vol- 
ume, in  types,  ornaments,  and  their  arrangement — though 
the  borders  on  some  of  the  pages  are  copies  of  Baskerville's 
and  Fournier's  type  "flowers." 

The  second  specimen  is  entitled  Muestra  de  los  Carac- 
tei'es  que  se  hallan  en  la  Fabrica  del  Convenio  de  S.  Joseph^ 
Barcelona.  Por  el  Ho.  F.  Pablo  de  la  Madre  de  Dios^  Religioso 
Carm.  Des.^  1777 — a  title-page  the  arrangement  of  which 
is  a  copy  of  the  title-page  in  Bodoni's  Parma  specimen 
of  1771 — in  turn  modelled  on  a  title  in  Fournier's  earlier 
Manuel.  This  rare  little  32mo  specimen  is  interesting  for  its 
showing  of  ancient  black-letter  types  which  were  employed 
in  early  Spanish  printing — Muestra  de  los  Caracteres  que  se 
iisaron  en  las  Impresiones  Antiguas  de  Espana  —  of  which 
two  sizes  are  reproduced  on  an  earlier  page  {Jig.  220). 
The  larger  is  somewhat  pointed,  though  not  as  much  so  as 
many  other  Spanish  gothic  types:  the  smaller  is  a  rounder 
letter  and  perhaps  resembles  the  Spanish  equivalent  of  the 


82  PRINTING  TYPES 

lettre  de  somme — in  Spain  called  letra  de  Tortis}  The  roman 
and  italic  types  in  the  book  are  old  style  of  the  usual  kind, 
though  here  and  there  fonts  appear  which  are  somewhat 
calligraphic  in  appearance.  The  eleven  pages  of  borders  or 
vinetas  are,  most  of  them,  Spanish  renderings  of  French 
designs.  The  book  (dedicated  to  Carlos  III)  was  evidently 
printed  by  some  one  famihar  with  Fournier's  style  of  type- 
setting. 

In  the  volume  of  Ponz's  Fiage  de  Espana  devoted  to 
Madrid,  the  author,  in  his  account  of  the  Real  Biblioteca, 
says  that  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  the  works  of  national 
writers  will  be  published  under  the  direction  of  the  Royal 
Library  when  the  Imprenta  Real  is  actually  established,  as 
it  shortly  will  be  by  the  King's  instruction;  the  principal 
difficulty  —  that  of  obtaining  suitable  matrices  —  having 
been  overcome.  Ponz  adds  that  these  have  been  engraved 
with  the  utmost  perfection  by  Don  GeronimoGil,  and  that 
specimens  of  them  have  been  submitted  to  the  King  by  Don 
Juan  de  Santander,  chief  librarian.  The  volume  in  which 
this  passage  occurs,  Ibarra  published  in  1776.^  Allowing 
for  the  leisurely  deliberation  \\ ith  'which  the  development 
of  type-cutting  ambled  along  in  Spain,  perhaps  eleven 
years  was  not  a  long  period  to  wait  for  a  specimen  of  the 
types  themselves.  Ibarra  had  already  used  some  of  them 
(loaned  by  the  Real  Biblioteca)  in  his  quarto  Academy  edi- 
tion of  Don  Quixote  issued  in  1780.  It  was  not  until  1787 

^  Letra  de  Tortis — probably  derived  from  the  name  of  a  Venetian  printer, 
Battista  de  Tortis,  who  largely  employed  it.  Other  forms  of  Spanish  black- 
letter  were  called  —  according  to  Mendez  —  Bula,  Antigua,  Gothica,  For- 
mata,  Veneciana,  Lernosina,  and  de  Calderilla.  For  explanation  of  these 
names  see  the  notice  of  Del  Lnfiresor  Bautista  de  Tortis  in  Mendez'  Tyfio- 
grafihia  Es/ianola,  Madrid,  1796,  pp.  385  et  seq. 

Fiage  de  Esfiana,  Madrid,  Ibari-a,  1776,  Tomo  Quinto,  p.  174.  This  was 
the  work  which  the  French  are  said  to  have  used  as  a  guide  in  looting  objects 
of  art  durinsr  the  Peninsular  War. 


t^ypttiy  Setter  futo  j  remtio  lasctd" 
Jtuiias  niaesiras  ae  los  iamarios 
de>  lei  rev  atte  /lasicv  e/  presenie. 
ienao  cerrteuies  en  int  [Ptuiaicion^ 
G/  arado  mcts  peaae/io  ^  a  tie  co- 
mtuinieriie  clania/i  Z/r  o/npa  re^ /i^ 
tfe  esia^  acava/iao  ac  jiaidcr  pcira 
el tiitevo  re'zaao  y  pero  camo  poco 
tistcal en  nttesiras  Xmpretiias y  se 
aexct  SIC  jutcesirapara  ctLctnao  sal- 
^a/i  lasae  lypttsal  ^  Vctraria&fia y 
o£tctnasia  ^  y  JSrebtaLrco  ^  atce^ 
aisctirro y  sietiao  cZ)tosservtao  ^sal 
arati  per  el  rifi  ae  esie  ci/io  ^ 
ac&tnpctriaacts  y  a  si  aestis  respcc- 

240.  Italic  in  Prefatory  Address:  Espinosa''s  Muestras  de  los 
Caracteres^  etc.^  Madrid^  1771 


TEXTO  GORDO. 


N  este  manuscrko  tenemos  un  exem- 
plo  SLimamente  persuasivo  de  quan 
necesaria  es  la  critica  para  hacer  juicio  de 
los  libros ;  y  de  que  para  leer  con  utilidad 
algunos ,  es  menester  haver  leido  muchos. 
Qualquiera  que  tuviese  no  mas  que  una 
^  superficial  noticia  de  este  manuscrko  ,  6  el  |(j|^ 
que  le  leyese  ,  sin  mas  noticias  de  su  asun- 
to  ,  que  las  que  hallase  en  el ,  tendria  ,  a 
su  parecer  ,  un  argumento  demonstrativo 
de  que  las  Artes  Magicas  se  ensenaron  pu- 
blicamente  en  lasEscuelas  de  Toledo*,  y  v| 
Cordoba :  porque ,  ya  se  ve  ,  que  pmeba 
mas  clara ,  que  un  manuscrko  de  notoria 
^^  antiguedad  ,  en  que  el  mismo  Autor  con- 
^p  fiesa ,  que  sabe  la  Nigromancia :  que  la  es- 
tudio  en  Toledo :  que  en  el  mismo  libro 
^  propone  ensenar  al  Mundo  cosas  arcanas, 
que  le  ensenaron  los  Espiritus ;  y  en  fin, 
que  nombra  los  Maestros ,  que  en  su  tiem- 
po  ensenaban  en  Toledo ,  y  Cordoba 
las  Artes  Magicas  ? 


^ 


:?^'2s 


^M 


241.  Texto  Gordo  (roman):  Espinosa's  Muestras^  etc.^  Madrid^  1771 


CURSIFA  DE  TEXTO  GORDO. 

TTJiV  qiianto  al  Alitor  d'lgo ,  que  no  pudo 
JUjI  scrh  el  que  suena ;  esto  es ,  sugeto  con- 
tempordneo  dc  algimos  de  los  Maestros ,  que  M 
no/nbra,  0  no  liuvo  tal  FirgUio  Corduhense  en  k^ 
el  Mundo  ,  6  si  le  hiivo ,  no  fiie  Alitor  del  nia- 
nuscrlto  en  question  -^  6  silo  fiie  ,  el  tal  FirgUio  pi, 
^  Corduhense  era  tin  homlre  ignorantisinio ,  y  men-  ^^ 
tirosisinio.  Dicese  conteniporaneo  de  Avicena ,  y    { 
de  Abenrroiz^  que  nosotros  llamamos  Aver  roes ;  y  ^ 
^  asimisino  supone  contempordneos  a  estos  dos  Ali- 
tor es  ,  lo  que  estd  muy  lexos  de  ser  verdad ,  piies  \. 
,  Avicena  florecio  a  los  principios  del  sigh  un-  pli 
^  decimo  ,  y  Averroes  a  los  fines  del  duodecimo', 
I    de  modo  ,  que  precedio  casi  dos  siglos  el  prime- 
'^.  ro  al  segundo,  Mas :  Refiere  que  Avicena  en-  ^^ 
||J  send  en  Cordoba,  Esto  es  cierto  que  otros  mil-  Wp 
^  I   chos  lo  dicen ,  y  aiin  qiiefue  Espanol  por  naci-  ij 
^i  miento ;  pero  tambien  es  cierto ,  que  no  solo  .no  ]^. 
^  file  Espanol ,  /;/  ensem  en  Cordoba ,  mas  ni  en-  In-' 
tro  jamas  en  ESPANA^  ni  aim  se  acerco    I 
^1       a  siis  vccindades :  de  que  hace  evidcncia 
^'i  B,  Nicolas  Antonio, 


242.  Texto  Gordo  {italic):  Espinosa's  Muestras,  etc.,  Madrid,  1771 


CVRSIFA  DE  LETURA  CHICA. 


Bt  eUvavlt  manum  fuam  fupcr  eos :  nt  projlermret  cos  in  dc- 
ferto  :  Et  ut  dei'icem  semn  eorum  in  Nationibus  ,  <i^  difperge- 
ret  eos  in  regionibus.  Et  imdatifunt  Bedphegor ,  &  comederunt 
facrificia  mortuorum.  Et  irritavcrunt  eum  in  adumntionibiis  suis, 
&  multiplicata  ejl  in  eis  ruina.  Et  Jletit  Phinees ,  ^  placavit, 
cycejjavit  quajfatio.  Et  rcpuldtum  cjl  ei  in  jufitiam,  in  gene- 
rationm  &  generationem  ufque  in  fempiternitm.  Et  irritavcrunt 
eum  ad  Aquas  contradiciionis :  &  vexatus  ejl  Moyses  propter 
eos :  quia  exacerba-verunt  fpiritum  ejw.  Et  dijlinjcit  inlabiis  suis: 
non  difperdidcrunt  gentes ,  quas  dixit  Dominus  ilils.  Et  commlf- 
ti  funt  inter  gentes ,  &  didicerunt  opera  corutn  :  i^  servierunt 
fculptilibus  eorum  :  &  faclum  ejl  illis  in  fcandalum,  Et  im- 
tnolaverunt  flios  fuos  ,  &  filias  fuas  dcctnomh.  Et  efuderunt 
fangulnem  innoccntem  :  sanguinem  filicrum  fuorum  ib'  JUiarum 
Juarum ,  quas  facrificaverunt  fculptilibus  Chanaan,  Et  infecla 
ejl  terra  in  Jangtiinibus ,  &  contaminata  ejl  in  opcribus  eorum: 
cjy  Jormcati  funt  in  adinventionibus  fuis.  Et  iratus  cjl  furore  Do- 
minus  in  populumjuum  :  et  abominatus  ejl  herediiatem  Juam.  Et 
tradidit  eos  in  manus  gentium  :  dr  dominatijunt  eorum  qui  ode- 
runt  eos.   Et  tribulaverunt  eos  inimici  eorum  ,  &  humiliati  Junt 
fub  manibus  eorum  :  Jccpe  liber  avit  eos.  Ipji  am  em  exacerbave- 
runt  eum  in  conJiUoJuo  ,  &  humiliati  sunt  in  iniqmtatibus  suis. 
Et  vidit  cum  trlbularcntur ,  &  audivit  orationem  eorum.  Et  me- 
mor  fuit  tcjlamenti  sui  ,  &  poenituit  eum  secundum  multitudi- 
nem  misericordia:  sued.  Et  dedit  eos  in  miscricordlas  in  conspeclu 
omnium  qui  ceperant  eos.  Salvos  nos  Jac  Vominc  Deus  noster. 
et  congrega  nos  de  Nationibus :  Ut  conftcatnur  nomini  sanclo  tuo: 
et  gloriemur  in  laude  tua.   Benedicius  Dominus  Deus  Israel  a 
sc^culo  et  usque  in  sceculum  :  et  dicct  omnis  populus :  Fiat  ^fiat. 

ABCDEFGHI^Z 


243.  Italic  of  Letura  Ch'ica:  Espinosa' s  Muestras.,  etc.,  Madrid^  1771 


OTRO   ENTREBOS. 

Primera  prueha. 
.K^adix  omnium  bonorum  eft  charitas ,  &  radix  omnium 
maloi-um  eft  cupiditas^  &  simul  ambs  esse  non  possunt ,  quia 
nisi  una  radicitus  ewilsa  non  fuerit  ^  alia  plantari  non  potest. 
Sine  causa  aliquis  conatur  ramos  incidere  ^  si  radicem  non  con- 
tendit  evellere.  Habere  omnia  facramenta  ^  &  malus  qssq 
^i'  potest ;  habere  autem  charitatem .,  &  malus  &ssq  non  poteft. 
!Non  numerositas  opemm  ^  non  diuturnitas  temporum  ,  sed 
major  charitas  meliorque  voluntas  auget  meritum.  Nam  quod 
patet .,  &  quod  latet  in  divinis  codicibus .,  tenet  ^  qui  charita- 
tem servat  in  moribus.  Sola  charitas  eft,  quae  vincit  omnia  & 
sine  qua  nihil  valent  omnia  ,  8c  quK  vbicumque  fuerit ,  trahit 
ad  se  omnia.  Scientia  si  sola  sit ,  inflat ,  quia  vero  charitas 
sedificat ,  scientiam  non  permittit  inflari.  Charitas  eft  ad^io 
redtitudinis  ,  oculos  semper  habens  ad  Deum  ,  glutinum  ani- 
marum,  societas  fidelium,  otio  non  frigida  ,  adlione  non  frac- 
ta  ,    non  fugax  ,    non  audax  ,   non    prasceps. 

Las  mas  exquisitas  producciones  de  la  Prensa  se 
hcrmosean  'ij  enriquecen  con  las  del  Euril  ^  anjudan- 
do  d  la  memoi'ia  ^  'if  a  la  comprension  ^  delineados  con 
espiritoso  ademan  los  Hei'oes  ^  n/  personaliiadas  las  pas- 
mosas  ocurrencias-  de  sus  mas  singulares  acetones.  Los 
Gabmetes  de  los  Erud'itos  no  jncndigan  otros  adornos^ 
que  los  que  ahundantemente  tributa  el  Grabado  en 
Mapas  Geograjicos  .,  '^  ^4stronomicos  ^  6  en  Tablas  Cro- 
nologicas  .,  para  registrar  n/  medir  la  anchurosa  capact- 
dad  del  Mundo  ^  la  admirable  immensidad  de  las  Esfe- 
ras  ^  y  las  puntuales  Epocas  del  tiempo  •>  sin  apartarss 
de  la  quiet ud  de  su  do^o  retire , 


244.  Entredos  {roman  cmd  italic):  Espinosas  Muestras^etc. 
Madrid,  177  \ 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  83 

that  a  specimen-book  appeared,  entitled  Muestras  de  los 
Niievos  Punzones  y  Matrices  para  la  Letra  de  Imprenta  exe- 
cutados  por  Orden  de  S.  M.  y  de  su  Caudal  destinado  a  la  Do- 
tacion  de  su  Real  Biblioteca.  These  were  probably  all  cut  b}' 
Geronimo  Gil,  though  no  supporting  statement  is  made  ex- 
cept on  the  first  page,  where  we  are  told  that  a  minute  type,  . 
proudly  called  Plus  Ultra  and  described  as  the  smallest 
letter  in  Europe,  was  cut  by  Gil,  although  he  left  it  unfin- 
ished. These  types  are  very  Spanish  in  eftect  —  notice  par- 
ticularly the  parangona  in  roman  and  italic  {^jigs.  245  and 
246),  the  roman  otra  parangona  on  page  30,  and  the  cursiva 
nueva — a  version  of  the  condensed  French  italic  then  popu- 
lar {Jig.  247).  Specimens  of  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Arabic 
characters  are  included  in  the  collection.  The  titling-letters 
resemble  some  Holland  fonts,  and  many  of  the  ornaments 
are  derived  from  Fournier,  from  Caslon,  and  from  Basker- 
ville — with  a  difference.  It  is  a  fine  assemblage,  and  is  one 
of  the  first  I  know  of,  where  the  number  of  matrices  and 
punches  is  appended  to  the  display  of  each  font.  Many 
of  these  types  and  ornaments  ultimately  found  a  place  in 
the  Imprenta  Real  of  Madrid  and  appear  in  its  specimen 
of  1799. 

The  next  book  in  the  group  is  Muestras  de  los  Grados  de 
Letras  y  V'lnetas  que  se  hallan  en  el  Obrador  de  Fundicion  de 
la  Viuda  e  Hijo  de  Pradell^  Madrid.  En  la  OJicina  de  Don 
Benito  Cano^  Ano  de  1793.  Eudaldo  Pradell,  the  founder  of 
this  establishment  (sometimes  called  the  Catalan  foundry), 
was  a  country  boy  of  good  family.  He  was  first  apprenticed 
to  an  armourer — as  was  Caslon  to  a  gunmaker.  He  went  to 
Barcelona  when  twenty  years  old,  and  there  met  the  head  of 
the  Imprenta  Real,  Pablo  Barra.  This  man  urged  Pradell  to 
become  a  type-cutter,  as  Spain  needed  such  a  workman. 
After  a  good  many  difficulties,  Pradell  produced  four  fonts 


84  PRINTING  TYPES 

which  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  Carlos  III,  who  gave 
him  a  pension  in  1764.  Pradell,  in  a  biographical  note  to 
this  specimen,  is  called  el  primer  inventor  en  Espana  de  esta 
Arte.  He  set  up  a  foundry  in  Madrid,  where  he  pursued 
his  trade  successfully,  and  he  departed  this  life  in  1788.  In 
the  next  year  his  son  Eudaldo,  who  continued  his  father's 
business,  was  also  pensioned  by  the  King. 

The  peticano  {Jig.  248),  lectura.,  texto^  and  entredos  were 
the  first  types  that  the  elder  Pradell  finished.  The  body  of 
the  letter  is,  in  some  cases,  large  compared  with  its  ascend- 
ers. The  descenders  are  generally  short,  which  partly  ac- 
counts for  the  rolling  look  of  the  fonts  in  large  sizes.  Pradell's 
italic  fonts  have  the  pen-work  appearance  which  was  such 
a  feature  of  Spanish  eighteenth  century  types.  The  orna- 
ments in  his  book  show  the  Bodoni  and  Fournier  influence, 
modified  by  Spanish  rendering.  There  is  an  assortment  of 
mathematical  signs  and  some  large  arable  numerals — the 
latter  reminiscent  of  Bodoni.  Music-types,  a  supply  of  awk- 
ward, heavy  tiding-letters,  flowered  letters,  and  nine  pages 
of  "flowers"  complete  a  very  interesting  volume. 

The  next  specimen  is  Muestras  de  los  Caracteres  que  tiene 
en  su  Ohrador  Pedro  If  em.,  Fimdidor  en  esta  Corte.  En  la  Im- 
prenta  de  Fermin  Thadeo  Villalpando  (1795).  The  prefa- 
tory ruote  to  this  16mo  volume  reads :  "These  printing  char- 
acters are  cast  from  the  punches  and  matrices  which  were 
entirely  the  work  of  Don  Eudaldo  Pradell,  first  inventor  of 
them  in  Spain,  for  which  he  was  pensioned  by  His  Majesty 
in  the  year  1 764,  which  matrices  are  now  the  property  of 
Pedro  Ifern,  being  part  of  the  dowry  of  his  wife.  Dona  Mar- 
garita Pradell,  and  which  are  dealt  in  by  virtue  of  the  royal 
order  following" — which  is  appended,  dated  August  16, 
1790.  Ifern's  specimen  is  a  pretty  little  book,  got  up  with 
considerable  taste  and  showing  naturally  much  the  same 


N?  XXVIII.  28 


D, 


I>ARANGONA. 


e  esta  manera  viven  los 
malos  como  olvidados  de 
Dios  ^  y  asi  estan  en  este 
mundo  como  hacienda  sin 
dueno  ^  como  escuela  sin 
maestro^  como  navio  sin  go- 
H'  vernalle  ,  y  finalmente  co- 
mo ganado  descarriado  sin 
pastor.  Y  asi  les  dice  Dios: 
no  quiero  ya  tener  mas  car- 
go de  apacentaros. 


TJcne  este  grado  en  el  redondo  34  matrices  de  ca- 
ja  baja  ,  de  la  altaG^,  de  versalesag  ,  de  versalillas 
29  ,   50  de  estas  con  acenros  ,  y  33  de  titulares. 

PUN20NES  de  caja  baja  35  ,  de  alta  40  ,  de  versales 
28  ,  de  versalillas  25  ,  con  acentos  solos  para  versales 
y  versalillas  9  ,  y  33  de  titulares. 


It 


W , ^ 

245.  Roman  cut  by  Gil:  Specimen  Real  Biblioteca 
Madrid^  1787 


u 


p. 


XXIX.  29 

PARANGONA. 


ues  dime  ahora  ^que  ma- 
yor peligroy  que  mayor  mi- 
seria  que  'vivirfuera  de  esta 
tutelay  cuidado  paternal  de 
Dios  ^  y  quedar  expuesto  d 
todos  los  encuentros  del  mtm- 
S  do?  P  or  que  si  le  falta  esta 
sombray  favor  de  Dios  ^que 
hard  el  solo  y  desarmado  en- 
tre  tan  poderosos  enemigos? 


Haj/  en  esta  cvpstva  32  7,jatt^ic-es  de  caja  baja  ,  de 
alta  55  ,  de  versales  y  versaiiilas  58  ,  de  esras  dos_  con 
acentos  52  ,  de  vinetas  3  ,  de  espacios  de  imprimir  2  , 
]'•  33  detitulares. 

puNzoi^Es  de  caia  baja  33  ,  de  alta  3T  ,  de  versales 
28  ,  de  versalilJa?  28,  con  acenros  21,  7  33  de  titiilares. 
TOTAi.  de  este  grado:  441  matrices  :  y  344  pun- 
zones. 


t 


246.  Italic  cut  by  Gil:  Specimen  Real  Biblioteca 
Madrid,  1787 


i 


CURSIVA  NUEVA  BE   TEXTO. 


JK^egla  es  tamhien  de  pruden- 
cia  no  mirar  a  la  antimedad  u 
novedad  de  las  cosas  para  apro- 
barlas  6  condenarlas  ;  porque  mu- 
chas  cosas  hay  muy  acostum- 
hradas  y  muy  malas  ,  y  otras 
hay  muy  nuevas  y  muy  huenas, 
ij  nl  la  vejez  es  parte  para  jus- 
tificar  lo  malo  ,  ni  la  novedad 
debe  ser  para  condenar  lo  hue- 
no  J  sino  en  todo  y  por  todo  hin- 
ca  los  ojos  en  los  merltos  de  las 
cosas,  y  no  en  los  anos. 


r 


247.  New  Italic  of  Texto  (showing"  French  influence^ 
Specimen  Real  Biblioteca^  Madrid^  1787 


&  ,  I     ^ 

N.°  I. 


PETICANO. 


JrLste  Rey  Agesi- 
lao ,  como  en  su  exer- 
cito  tuviese  poca  gen- 
te  de  caballo,  fliesea 
la  Ciudad  y  tierra  de 

su    CURS  IV  A. 

Efeso^  donde  hahia 
gente  muy  rica ,  y  po- 
CO  codiciosa  de  guerra. 
El  gran  mandato^  b*c. 


I 


A  i 


Sr't'fc^^'H'n     ' ^J^BL.  'w^nrH^'f^ 


248.  Peticano^cut  hy  Eudaldo  Pradell 
Muestras  de  la  Viuda  /  Hijo  de  Pradell^  Madrid^  1793 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  85 

collection  as  his  mother-in-law's  more  ambitious  volume; 
but  the  paper  is  lighter  and  more  attractive  than  the  Pradell 
specimen,  and  shows  off  both  types  and  ornaments  better. 
The  ornaments  are  not  quite  the  same.  Many  of  them  are 
derived  from  French  sources  and  some  from  English,  but 
they  are  all  treated  in  a  very  Spanish  way  {Jig-  249). 

A  final  volume  to  be  described  is  the  1799  specimen-book 
of  the  Imprenta  Real  of  Madrid,  which  was  at  last  started 
and  which  seems  to  have  absorbed  the  material  cut  by  Gil 
for  the  Biblioteca  Real.  Richard  Ford  in  his  classic  Hand- 
Book  for  Travellers  in  Spain — "the  best  guide  ever  written 
for  any  country"^  —  speaks  of  the  Imprenta  Real  as  being, 
in  his  day,  in  the  Calle  de  Carreteras — the  same  street  in 
which,  about  a  hundred  years  earlier,  Baretti,^  then  trav- 
elling in  Spain,  visited  a  printing-office.  Housed  in  a  cum- 
brous building,  the  work  of  an  architect  named  Turillo,  it 
contained.  Ford  tells  us,  "the  royal  printing  and  engraving 
establishment.  From  this  press  have  issued  many  splendid 
specimens  of  typography,"  though  he,  unhappily,  neglects 
to  say  what  they  were.  This  establishment  was  later  situ- 
ated in  the  Calle  del  Cid,  but  to-day  no  longer  exists. 

The  title  of  this  specimen  is  Muestras  de  los  Punzones  y 
Matrices  de  la  Letra  que  se  Jiinde  en  el  Obrador  de  la  Im- 
prenta Realj  Madrid,  Afio  de  1799.  The  book  is  in  two  parts. 

*  The  famous  edition  is  that  of  1845.  Consult  the  amusing  account  of  Spanish 
booksellers,  Vol.  I,  pp.  138  et  seq. 

'  Tlie  Italian,  Joseph  Baretti  (remembered  chiefly  for  his  Italian-English  and 
Spanish-English  lexicons,  and  as  one  of  Dr.  Johnson's  circle),  who  was  in 
Madrid  in  1760,  mentions  visiting  "a  large  printing-office  in  the  Calle  de  las 
Carretas  [_sic] ,  a  street  so  called,  and  chiefly  inhabited  by  printers  and  book- 
sellers." Speaking  of  the  fifty  workmen  employed  in  this  printing-office  and 
the  rate  of  production,  he  says,  "I  asked  two  fellows  at  one  press,  how  many 
sheets  they  could  work  off"  in  a  day,  and  was  answered  five  and  twenty  hun- 
dred, which  I  thought  a  pretty  good  number,  especially  as  they  were  none  of 
the  most  muscular  men."  Baretti's  Journey  from  London  to  Genoa,  etc., 
London,  1770,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  8,  9. 


86  PRINTING  TYPES 

The  first  comprises  an  ambitious  collection  of  excellent  ro- 
man  and  italic  types,  followed  by  some  Greek  types  (fine  in 
the  largest  and  smallest  sizes),  a  few  pages  of  Arabic,  and 
a  little  Hebrew.  Apart  from  Gil's  fonts,  and  others  of  that 
style,  there  are  a  number  of  lighter  fonts,  both  in  roman  and 
italic,  that,  while  distinctly  "old  style,"  show  the  taste  for 
lighter  letter-forms  which  was  then  making  headway  in 
Spain.  A  second  collection  of  type  of  decidedly  more  mod- 
ern cut  begins  on  page  75.  The  tendency  toward  less  "nour- 
ished," lighter  letters  is  clearly  seen  in  these  over-finished, 
monotonous  characters  {Jigs.  250  mid  25 1)  —  types  by  no 
means  so  interesting  as  those  in  Part  I.  Following  these  is 
a  large  display  of  capital  letters  in  roman  and  italic,  shaded 
initials,  Greek  capital  letters,  and  a  repertoire  of  "flowers," 
some  of  which  we  reproduce  {Jigs.  252  and  253).  A  few 
are  original,  but  a  great  many  of  these  "flowers"  were  de- 
rived from  Holland,^  France,^  and  England,^  and  others  from 
various  perfectly  recognizable  sources ;  but  they  are  ren- 
dered in  such  a  way  as  to  be  transmuted  into  very  Spanish 
design.* 

Late  eighteenth  century  Spanish  specimen-books,  when 
compared  with  English  or  French  "specimens,"  show  (l) 
that  the  prevailing  European  taste  was  active  in  Spain, 
though  retarded;  (2)  yet  that  type  and  ornaments  both  pos- 
sessed a  marked  national  character;  and  (3)  that  Spanish 
types — especially  in  italic  fonts — had  a  surprisingly  calH- 
graphic  quality. 

This  third  point  is  perhaps  capable  of  elucidation.  These 
calligraphic  types  were  (it  seems  to  me)  modelled  directly 

'  Page  138,  No.  155  ;  page  139,  No.  172.  '  Page  131,  No.  63. 

"Page  136,  No.  132;  page  137,  No.  142. 

*  The  '  *  modem  face ' '  type  which  was  in  use  by  1 800  in  otlier  parts  of  Europe 
does  not  appear  to  be  commonly  employed  in  Spain  until  some  years  later. 


m^m^^- 


^^ 


i. 


m'42^ 


#  # 


A 


'I    S 


V 


"•N^E^^Sir 


V 


X 


4i 


X 


=7^/ii« 


W5 


^ 


ft: 


< 

H 
W 

^:2; 


o 


O 

Pi 
w 


=^^- 


4- 


A- 
%■• 


A- 


-rr^ij^v,^ 


•S^ 


^ 
"^^ 


m 


M 


11 


s 


j»ay;»^ 


N?  LXXXVII.  87 

XECTURA. 
CARNICERO.    CARNIVORO. 

-C/stas  voces  convienen  pof  que  son  califi- 
caciones  genericas  de  los  animales  que  co- 
men  carne.  Difieren  en  que  carnivoro  sig- 
nifica  simplemente  el  que  come  carne  ;  y 
carnicero  el  que  hace  su  comida  de  ella.  La 
primera  designa  el  hecho ,  y  la  segunda  el 
apetito  natural,  el  habito  constante.  El 
animal  carnicero  no  come  otra  cosa  que 
carne;  su  naturaleza  le  obliga  a  vivir  de 
ella  sola ;  el  carnivoro  es  el  que  entre  otras 
cosas  come  carne ;  pero  puede  vivir  sin  co- 
merla,  como  que  no  es  su  unico  y  propio 
alimento.  El  tigre ,  el  Icon ,  el  lobo  se  man- 
tienen  solo  de  carne ,  y  por  consiguiente  son 
carniceros.  El  hombre,  el  perro  ,  el  gato 
comen  y  gustan  de  carne ;  pero  no  la  nece- 
sitan  para  vivir,  pues  pueden  pasar  con 
otros  alimentos ,  y  de  consiguiente  son  car- 
nivoros.  En  las  especies  carnivoras  se  11a- 
man  carniceros  los  individuos  que  gustan 
mas  de  carne ,  y  la  comen  mas  a  menudo 
que  los  otros ;  pero  ya  en  este  caso  se  usa 
impropiamente  de  la  voz  carnicero. 


250.  Roman  tending-  to  '"''  Modern  Face ^^"^  from  Muestras^  etc. 
Imprenta  Real.,  Madrid^  1799 


N?  LXXXVm.  88 


LECTURA. 

CAR1S7CER0    CARNIVORO 


JlLs 


fstas  voces  convienen  porque  son  califi" 
caciones  genericas  de  los  animates  que  co 
men  came.  D'lfieren  en  que  carnivoro  sig^ 
nifica  simplemente  el  que  come  carne;  y  car- 
nicero  el  que  hace  su  comida  de  ella.  La 
primera  designa  el  hecho  ;>  y  la  segunda  el 
apetito  natural  :>  el  hdhito  constants  El  ani- 
mal  carnicero  no  come  otra  cosa  que  carne; 
su  naturaleza  le  obliga  a  vivir  de  ella  sola, 
el  carnivoj'o  es  el  que  entre  otras  cosas  come 
carne  ;  pero  puede  vivir  sin  comerla ,  co- 
mo  que  no  es  su  unico  y  propio  alimento.  El 
tigre,  el  leon,  el  loho  se  mantienen  solo  de 
carne  3  y  por  consiguiente  son  carniceros. 
El  hombre ,  el  perro ,  el  gato  comen  y  gus- 
tan  de  carne;  pero  no  la  necesitan  para  vi- 
vir, pues  pueden  pasar  con  otros  alimentos; 
y  de  consiguiente  son  carnivoros.  En  las  es- 
pecies  carnivoras  se  Human  carniceros  los 
individuos  que  gustan  mas  de  carne,  y  la 
comen  mas  d  menudo  que  los  otros ;  pero 
ya  en  este  caso  se  usa  impropiamente  de  la 
voz  carnicero. 


251.  Italic  tending-  to  '"''Modern  Face!!''  from  Muestras^  etc. 
Imprenta  Real.,  Madrid.,  1799 


204 


205 


205 


207 


DOS  PUNTOS  DE  TEXTO. 


^ 


n/Of-  i^t  .^ir-  .-I /••>,-  r,/\\^  ,./TS^  «,/T\^ 


■  %^ '^- '^ '^ -^^ 


•trTrTrvvtrTrtrtrtrtrTrvTrtrirTrtrtr 


252.  Ornaments  from  Muestras^  etc.^  Imprenta  Real 
Madrid^  1799 


sop 


VIN£TAS. 


144 


>\>  Vik^Si  lj!»y  C!A»N 


210 


211 


^  /^F^  /^^rfflV  ^^mTSV  rwSV  4m^w 
AvSl  v/'v*^  v/A'ot  v/'v^  u'S'^  //' V.' yy  ^'A;^\^ 


f.^  f,C^  /;i 


253.  Ornaments  from  Muestras^  etc.,  Imprenta  Real 
Madrid,  1799 


SPANISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  87 

on  the  Spanish  handwriting  then  considered  ideal  for  docu- 
ments or  letters  meant  to  be  handsomely  rendered.  For  in- 
stance, italic  letters,  in  some  fonts  in  these  specimen-books, 
end  in  little  "dabs,"  as  if  written  with  a  pen  overfull.  This 
was  much  like  some  of  the  writing  of  the  great  seventeenth 
century  Spanish  calligrapher  Diaz  Morante,  an  edition  of 
whose  Arte  Niieva  de  Escribir  W2is  republished  by  Sancha  in 
1776.  Morante  and  his  son  profoundly  influenced  Spanish 
writing  for  two  centuries.^ 

Though  craftsmen  in  other  countries  of  Europe  had 
learned  the  futility  of  copying  too  closely  a  written  letter, 
an  eflfort  appears  to  have  been  made  in  Spain  to  translate 
the  formal  calligraphy  of  the  eighteenth  century  into  type- 
forms.  This  was  a  beginner's  blunder,  but  all  earlier  be- 
ginners had  "begun"  so  long  before,  that  for  a  moment  the 
student  of  types  is  puzzled  at  the  recurrence  of  the  error, 
and  takes  it  for  something  new.  If  Spanish  specimen- 
books  were  filled  with  very  calligraphic  types,  perhaps  it 
was  because  the  Spanish  type-cutter — with  no  native  tradi- 
tion or  experience  to  guide  him  —  was  working  out  an  old 
problem  in  his  own  way. 

'  See  plates  in  Reflexiones  y  Arte  de  Escribir  del  Jbate  D^  Domingo  Maria 
Servidori,  Romano.  Imprenta  Real,  Madrid,  1788. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

ENGLISH  types:    I5OO-I8OO 

IF  the  earliest  types  cast  in  England  were  somewhat 
unattractive  in  design  and  rough  in  execution,  it  was 
not  because  the  types  were  early  types,  for  at  that  same 
time  in  other  countries  types  were  better;  nor  because  of 
any  lack  of  good  models,  for  English  black-letter  manu- 
scripts were  often  very  beautiful.  But  in  England  few  early 
native  types  had  what  we  should  call  "feeling."  Type-cut- 
ting and  type-designing  did  not,  apparently,  at  first  come 
easily  or  instinctively  to  the  English.  Their  best  early  types 
were  imported. 

Most  of  Caxton's  types  were  poor  in  design  compared 
with  those  chiefly  employed  on  the  Continent  at  the  same 
epoch.  In  Caxton's  day,  gothic  letter  was  in  vogue  for  all 
English  printing.  Later,  this  gothic  crystallized  into  an 
English  pointed  black-letter  character,  similar  to  some  of 
the  black-letter  of  the  Netherlands,  from  which,  tempered 
perhaps  by  French  influences,  it  was  derived.  It  was  the 
characteristic  type  of  England,  and  we  find  it  in  the  Eng- 
lish workrooms  of  De  Worde,  who  greatly  perfected  it,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  as  well  as  in  use  by 
Pynson  and  Berthelet.  This  character  was  commonly  em- 
ployed throughout  the  sixteenth  century,  and  until  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  even  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury it  was  still  used  for  law-books,  proclamations,  licenses, 
etc.  The  poet  Gray,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  West,  who  was 
discouraged  about  his  legal  studies,  alluded  to  this  when  he 
said,  "Had  the  Gothic  character  and  bulkiness  of  those  vol- 
umes ...  no  ill  effect  upon  your  eye?  Are  you  sure,  if  Coke 
had  been  printed  by  Elzevir,  and  bound  in  twenty  neat 
pocket  volumes,  instead  of  one  folio,  you  should  never  have 


o 

H 

1—4 

u 


C3 
O 


O 


^  2D 


o 
^ 

i; 


c 


e^ 


o   ^ 


*3       S^ 


o 


;^      o 

«5      ?,^ 


'y; 


~      tr-, 


^ 


1^ 


o    g 
In  'B 


^  - 

as 


Q 
< 

H 

D 

O 

u 


o 

p 


«e 


J  '^ 


0 

0     <& 

-to 

0 


0 

C7^ 


^5- 


rt 

s 


^ 
^ 


c 


CO  § 

JO    J*" 


0  « 

^  © 

JO  ^ 

S  Q 

■^  ^^ 

© 

©  ^> 

CO  '" 

Q  c<J 

.^  «k 

e  CO 

<»  <j — 

©  "S 

lo.  JO 

^  ® 


-e- 

Co 


^^ 


Pi 

< 

w 

u 

w 

c/2 


o 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  89 

taken  him  up  for  an  hour,  as  you  would  a  Tully,  or  drank 
your  tea  over  him? "^  While  there  were  some  forms  of  givs- 
batarde  types  (like  Mansion's)  used  in  England  in  the  first 
thirty-five  years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  this  pointed 
gothic  letter  drove  them  out.  Types  modelled  on  the  old  Nor- 
man law-hand  called  "set  court,"  "bas  secretary"  (or  en- 
grossing), and  "running  secretary," — the  latter  the  cursive 
of  the  law  courts  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  —  also  existed 
{Jig.  254) ;  but  (like  the  civilite  in  France)  they  were  never 
much  used,  and  made  little  impression  on  English  typog- 
raphy. 

In  England,  the  first  roman  types  were  sometimes  called 
Italian  letter  or  "  white-letter,"  in  distinction  to  the  common 
English  black-letter.  Pynson's  Sermo  fratris  Hieronymi  de 
Ferraria  appears  to  have  contained  the  earliest  roman  letter 
used  in  England,  but  the  first  English  books  printed  en- 
tirely in  roman  were  his  two  1518  editions  of  the  Oratio  of 
Richard  Pace.  In  the  next  year  Pynson  printed,  in  two  sizes 
of  roman  type,  a  work  by  Horman,  entitled  Vulgaiia  {Jig. 
255).  Since  he  was  of  Norman  birth  and  had  intimate  re- 
lations with  printers  at  Rouen  and  with  Froben  at  Basle, 
he  may  have  bought  these  fonts  abroad;  although  he  cut 
some  types  of  his  own.^  Pynson  succeeded  Machlinia  as  a 

*  Mason's  Life  of  Gray  (second  edition),  London,  1775,  pp.  100, 101. 
^  "The  frequent  indications  to  be  met  with  of  the  transmission  of  founts  from 
one  printer  to  another,  as  well  as  the  passing  on  of  worn  types  from  the 
presses  of  tlie  metropolis  to  those  of  the  provinces,  are  suggestive  of  tlie  exist- 
ence (very  limited,  indeed)  of  some  sort  of  home  trade  in  type  e\'en  at  that 
early  date.  For  a  considerable  time,  moreover,  after  the  perfection  of  the  art 
in  England,  the  trade  in  foreign  types,  which  dated  back  as  early  as  the  estab- 
lishment of  printing  in  Westminster  and  Oxford,  continued  to  flourish.  With 
Normandy,  especially,  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  brisk 
commerce  was  maintained.  Not  only  were  many  of  the  English  liturgical  and 
law  books  printed  abroad  by  Norman  artists,  but  Norman  type  found  its 
way  in  considerable  quantities  into  English  presses.  M.  Claudin  .  .  .  states 
that  Rouen,  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  the  great  typo- 


90  PRINTING  TYPES 

printer  of  English  law-books — for  which  his  knowledge  of 
Norman  French  proved  a  recommendation.  De  Worde's  first 
roman  type  was  introduced  about  1520.  This  he  used  for 
printing  entire  books  and  also  for  emphasizing  special  words 
or  quotations  in  books  printed  in  black-letter.  Apparently 
it  was  De  Worde  who  first  introduced  an  italic  type  into 
England,  employing  it  for  marginal  notes  in  Wakefield's 
Oratio,  published  in  1524 — the  first  book  printed  in  Eng- 
land showing  Arabic  and  Hebrew  types.  De  Worde's  skill 
in  producing  the  best  English  black-letter  forms  has  already 
been  alluded  to.  He  seems  to  have  been  his  own  type- 
cutter. 

Thomas  Berthelet,  royal  printer  and  famous  for  his  beau- 
tiful bindings,  maintained  good  traditions  in  printing.  So  did 
Richard  Grafton,  Berthelet's  successor  as  King's  Printer; 
remembered  for  his  Bibles  and  service-books,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  edition  of  Cranmer's  Bible  which  he  printed  in 
association  with  Whitchurch  in  1539.  Thomas  Vautrollier 
was  responsible  for  the  printing  of  what  is  called  one  of  the 
handsomest  Elizabethan  books — though  a  very  tasteless 
performance  in  reality — North's  Plutarch,  issued  in  1579. 
In  types  and  presswork  he  excelled  most  of  his  craft.  But 
the  London  printer  John  Day  left  the  most  distinct  mark 
on  early  sixteenth  century  English  typography.  He  was 


graphical  market  which  furnished  type  not  to  England  only ,  but  to  other  cities 
in  France  and  to  Switzerland.  '  It  evidently  had  special  typographical  foun- 
dries,' he  observes.  '  Richard  Pynson,  a  London  printer,  was  a  Norman ;  Will 
Faques  learned  typography  from  J.  le  Bourgeois,  a  printer  at  Rouen.  These 
two  printers  had  types  cast  expressly  for  themselves  in  Normandy.  Wynkyn 
de  Worde  must  have  bought  types  in  Normandy  also,  and  very  likely  from 
Peter  Olivier  and  Jean  de  Lorraine,  printers  in  partnership  at  Rouen.'  And 
with  regard  to  the  first  printer  of  Scotland,  M.  Claudin  has  no  doubt  that 
MyUar  learned  his  art  in  Normandy,  and  that  the  types  with  which  his  ear- 
liest work  was  printed  were  those  of  the  Rouen  printer,  Hostingue."  Reed's 
History  of  Old  English  Letter  Foundries,  London,  1887,  p.  103. 


DIEPJETATE  i 

^De  pietate  m  dcum  vbi  dc  vera  idigionc 
ctredo  cultu  cum  fuis  cerimoni)  set  vltione 
circa  ncglcdum  vel  cotemptiim  corudem* 
Cap^ 

H  E  R  E  is  no  thyngc  in  the 
worldc  fo  coucniet  to  a  man 
as  to  te  holy  and  to  loue  god 
and  wotfliy  ppc  hym« 

Nihil  m  hiimanfs  religio 
nc  fa(flius  /  nihil  hommi 
tarn  proptium  §  pieta^ 

lis  cultus* 

Man  IS  natutallyc  dyfpofyd  to  haue  a  mynde  and 
reuerence  towarde  god* 
Homini  ingenita  eftreligfonis  cura* 
There  be  many  dC  diuerfc  maners  of  worfliyppyng 
and  doyngeoffactyfyce* 
Multiplex  eft  varia  cf  colcdf  dcu  ratio/muk 

tiplex  facrorum  ritus* 

The  relig>'on  that  Adam  tawght  fytft  his  chyls 
drene  and  all  that  cam  of  them  /  was  to  be  takyn 
for  the  mcft  ryght  and  fure  way  that  ledythe  man 
to  thepryuytc  of  godtyllMofeslawcam* 
Rcligio  quam  prothoplaftus  a  prihcipio  I/c 

bcris  et  omni  pofteritati^pofuit/ omnium 
rediflima  fui't  logecj  tutiffima  cenfcda/qu^ 
ad  veri  numinis  duci t ara  Mofaica  ten^  lege 
Mofcs  tabttls  wte  c^tyd  with  the  AtRc* 


255.  Roinan  Types  used  by  Pynson^  London^  1519 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  91 

born  in  1522,  and  began  work  on  his  own  account  in  1546. 
Taking  refuge  abroad  during  the  Marian  persecutions  of 
Protestants,  he  returned  and  began  printing  again  in  1557, 
and  on  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  (who  merely  persecuted 
Catholics),  worked  on  a  larger  scale.  Cunningham's  Cosmo- 
graphicall  G/asse,  which  Day  printed  in  1559,  was,  from  a 
decorative  and  pictorial  point  of  view,  an  ambitious  book. 
It  is  described  on  a  later  page. 

Matthew  Parker,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was  Day's 
chief  patron.  Day  cut  a  font  of  Saxon  which  was  used  in  a 
book  edited  by  the  archbishop,  issued  about  1566,  and  in 
some  later  volumes,  notably  Parker's  edition  of  j^lfredi 
Regis  Res  Gestae,  printed  in  1574.  This  book  shows  the  re- 
sult of  the  best  efforts  in  type-founding  up  to  that  time,  and 
the  archbishop's  preface  alludes  to  Day's  skilful  punch- 
cutting:  "And  inasmuch  as  Day,  the  printer,  is  the  first 
(and,  indeed,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  only  one)  who  has  cut 
these  letters  in  metal ;  what  things  have  been  written  in 
Saxon  characters  will  be  easily  published  in  the  same  type." 
The  roman  and  italic  used  in  the  volume  are  of  extreme 
importance  in  the  history  of  early  English  type-founding. 
The  roman,  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  "Italian  letter,"  resem- 
bles some  fine  fonts  used  on  the  Continent  {Jig.  256);  and 
the  italic  (that  used  in  the  Cosmogi'aphicall  Glasse)  is  no  less 
distinguished  {Jig-  257).  Reed  says:  "The  typography  of 
the  Milfredi  is  superior  to  that  of  almost  any  other  work  of 
the  period.  Dibdin  considered  it  one  of  the  rarest  and  most 
important  volumes  which  issued  from  Day's  press.  The 
archbishop's  preface  is  printed  in  a  bold,  flowing  Double 
Pica  Italic,  and  the  Latin  preface  of  St.  Gregory  at  the  end 
in  a  Roman  of  the  same  body,  worthy  of  Plantin  himself."^ 
A  new  italic  was  first  used  in  1572  in  Parker's  De  Anti- 

'  Reed,  p.  96. 


92  PRINTING  TYPES 

quitate  BritannicsB  EcclesisB — the  first  privately  printed  book 
brought  out  in  England.  Day,  by  the  way,  was  printer  of 
the  English  edition  in  black-letter  of  that  very  famous  Pro- 
testant r\\2iViyvo\og\\xm,Y  oxt^s  Book  of  Martyrs^m  1563 ;  and 
in  1569  he  produced  A  Book  of  Christian  Prayers^  —  com- 
monly called  "Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer  Book," — a  rough, 
tasteless  black-letter  volume,  clumsily  modelled  on  French 
Horse^  but  which  had  great  popularity.  He  also  cut  a  fine 
Greek  letter  and  some  attractive  musical  characters,  and 
mathematical  signs,  etc.,  not  before  cast  in  type.  The  use 
of  his  roman  and  italic  fonts  was  probably  restricted  to  the 
See  of  Canterbury.  Some  of  them  were  used  a  hundred 
years  later  by  Roycroft  in  Bishop  Walton's  Polyglot  Bible. 
Day  was  one  of  the  first  English  printers  to  cut  roman  and 
italic  letters  on  uniform  bodies.  Before  that  time,  roman  and 
italic  types  had  been  considered  characters  without  me- 
chanical interrelation;  as  examination  of  books  in  which 
they  are  both  employed  too  plainly  shows. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  roman 
types  used  in  England  were  respectable — in  a  few  cases, 
handsome.  By  the  middle  of  the  century,  however,  there 
was  a  decline,  attributable  to  a  variety  of  reasons.  English 
typography  shared  the  general  falling  off  which  began  as 
soon  as  the  restraining  traditions  of  the  manuscript  volumes 
had  passed  away.  Then,  too,  as  in  other  countries,  new  and 
more  complex  problems  of  book-making  were  coming  into 
being — changes  caused  by  a  demand  for  cheaper  books, 
by  the  realization  of  the  possibilities  of  type,  and  by  prob- 
lems arising  from  the  difference  between  the  arrangement  of 
a  modern  book,  as  we  understand  it,  and  the  old  traditional 
manuscript  volume.  Nor  was  the  English  printer  very  skilful 
or  tasteful  in  the  arrangement  of  types — good  or  bad;  and 
thus  English  books  did  not  equal  those  printed  by  good 


3 

2  *- 

s  ^ 

H  i 

CD  ^     C 

U  Si 

C5  Co 


*^  fe  o 

^  r:=^  O 

X  O  w 

t  o  Q 


c^.C 


rt  -::3  ^o^  oj    ^    o 


C.-Q   5*n   ^^   rt   rt 

^    tA>    o    AS  X     <L>  ,  <L»  *  ;:2 


C/5 

<3J 


S      t^      (U 


<L) 


Q 


E  '^  -A  0  is§  0 


L3  9Q  kP  .-»  -xa 
'T?  ^   .^     ""-^TN 

t^    ^    s: 


\ 


\ 


s:i    S    ^   ^  .^ 
^    n    ^    "- 


S5    ^ 


c     ^     ^ 


^        ^        ^        ^        7  ^ 

^     ^    S     ^    S  ^N 


o     tv     ^ 


-  I  s  -g  ^ 

-  &:  ^  -  - 


2s^ 

55 


4 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  93 

presses  on  the  Continent — either  in  workmanship,  beauty, 
or  correctness. 

The  decline  of  typography  from  1550  to  1650,  as  McKer- 
row  points  out,  was  also  due  (l)  to  the  fact  that  printing  fell 
into  the  hands  of  a  class  of  masters  and  men  less  able,  enter- 
prising, and  socially  important,  who  looked  at  it  solely  from 
the  commercial  side;  (2)  that  English  presses  printed  books 
chiefly  in  the  vernacular,  and  that  more  scholarly  volumes, 
like  the  classics,  were  largely  brought  from  abroad;  (3)  and 
chiefly,  to  the  beginning  of  a  burdensome  censorship  of  the 
press,  which  became  increasingly  restrictive.  Separately 
and  collectively,  all  these  contributed  to  the  decline  in  Eng- 
land of  printing  as  an  art.^ 

"Some  explanation,"  says  Reed,  "of  the  marked  supe- 
riority of  our  national  typography  at  the  close  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  over  that  of  half  a  century  later,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that,  whereas  many  of  the  first  printers 
used  types  wholly  cut  and  cast  for  them  by  expert  foreign 
artists,  their  successors  began  first  to  cast  for  themselves 
from  hired  or  purchased  matrices,  and  finally  to  cut  their 
own  punches  and  justify  their  own  matrices.  Printing  en- 
tered on  a  gloomy  stage  of  its  career  in  England  after  Day's 
time,  and  as  State  restrictions  gradually  hemmed  it  in, 
crushing  by  its  monopolies  healthy  competition,  and  by  its 
jealousy  foreign  succour,  every  printer  became  his  own  letter- 
founder,  not  because  he  would,  but  because  he  must,  and  the 
art  suflfered  in  consequence."  The  first  man  recorded  as  a 

'  For  the  state  of  the  sixteenth  century  English  press  (its  relations  to  the  gov- 
ernment, etc.)>  see  the  chapter  by  R.  B.  McKerrow  on  the  "Booksellers', 
Printers',  and  Stationers'  Trade,"  in  S/iakesfieare's  England,  Oxford, 
1916,  Vol.  II,  chapter  xxiii.  For  an  account  of  earlier  English  legislation  in 
reference  to  printing,  publishing,  and  bookselling,  see  the  Introductions  to 
Mr.  E.  Gordon  DuflPs  Century  of  the  English  Book  Trade,  1457-1557;  to 
McKerrow's  Dictionary  of  Printers,  1557-1640;  and  to  Vlomer^  ?,  Dictionary 
of  Booksellers  and  Printers,  1641-1667. 


94  PRINTING  TYPES 

type-founder  was  Hubert  Dauvillier,  who  came  to  England 
in  1553  and  whose  shop  was  in  existence  in  1594;  the  first 
Englishman  in  the  trade  being  Benjamin  Simpson,  who 
worked  as  a  type-founder  in  1597. 

By  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  State  had  so 
seriously  interfered  with  the  liberty  of  printing,  that  by 
1557  no  press  could  be  erected  outside  London  except  one 
each  at  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  In  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  Star  Chamber  decree  of  1637^ 
placed  the  number  of  letter-founders  at  four,  vacancies  being 
filled  by  a  commission.  From  1640  to  1662  was  a  period  of 
liberty;  but  this  restriction  was  revived  in  1662  and  lasted 
until  the  end  of  the  century — or  to  be  exact,  1693,  "During 
this  period,"  Pollard  tells  us,  "of  nearly  a  century  and  a  half, 
no  printing  was  permitted,  and,  with  the  most  insignificant 
exceptions,  no  printing  was  done,  except  at  London,  Oxford, 
and  Cambridge.  If  a  school-book  or  a  prayer-book,  or  a 
Bible,  or  a  book  of  any  kind  were  wanted  at  Falmouth  or 
at  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  it  was  from  London  or  Oxford  or 
Cambridge  that  it  had  to  be  procured,  and  procured  more- 
over from  a  closed  ring,  more  or  less  able  to  charge  what 
price  it  pleased.  If  a  poll-tax  of  a  few  pence  apiece  had  been 
imposed  on  the  people  of  England  the  whole  country  would 
have  been  in  revolt.  But  because  this  piece  of  oppression, 
which  had  no  parallel  in  any  other  civilized  country,  had  to 
do  with  books,  this  land  of  liberty  bore  it,  apparently  with- 
out a  murmur."^ 

The  earliest  English  specimen-sheet  was  that  of  Nicho- 
las Nicholls,  submitted  to  Charles  II  in  1665,  with  a  peti- 
tion for  the  post  of  royal  letter-founder — which  two  years 

It  was  this  decree  which  caused  Milton  to  write  his  Areofiagitica. 
'  A.  W.  Pollard  in  Transactions  of  the  Bibliographical  Society,  Vol.  XIII, 
p.  26. 


S.«-a±^SL&K5i:SS  g4»«5R4»i«-AS 


Au^jillimmo  Monarchy  &    Sfrfniifimo 

Principt   &    Doraino 

C     A    B    O    I  O     lit" 

■Drilanniarum,    &    Franci?    Rrgi 

Gloriofiffiaio    fidci  Dd>nfofi,&c 

Hrt   »ol«   fetjuftiiu 

Vivas  O   ReC    In  prrFcruiit), 

«  ■■»■    jl  \\'y    [SnI^ 

ut  coniu    dfoummi    antfiituj 
Aiiifquf    <ai    fpffiDcn, 

ucraiiflimy    Veftn  Maicftiti 
HufDillimr  oSeri,  8i  dediCit 

MaxiHi  Regit  SuMitoruia   immciTus, 
Nicholas  Nicholls 


»«£Sgi^¥93S¥2S«ia;£:2^^7SS^9 


258.  Earliest  English  Specimen-sheet 

Nicholas  JVicholls,  London,  1665 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  95 

later  he  obtained.  The  types  were  probably  cut  expressly 
for  the  specimen,  and  besides  roman  include  Greek,  He- 
brew, Syriac,  Samaritan,  Ethiopic,  and  Arabic  {Jig.  258). 
Moxon,  author  of  Mechanick  Exercises^  published  a  speci- 
men in  1669.  A  specimen  of  the  Fell  and  Junius  types  was 
issued  by  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  in  1693. 

The  Oxford  Press  began  its  work  in  1585,  and  has 
been  in  continuous  activity  to  our  own  day.  In  1629,  Sir 
Henry  Savile^  gave  the  press  some  fine  Greek  types  (bought 
at  Frankfort  possibly  from  Wechel's  successors),  called  the 
"Silver  Letter,"  in  which  the  Eton  Chrysostom  had  been 
printed.^  Later,  Archbishop  Laud  obtained  Letters  Patent 
for  it  (allowing  three  printers,  each  to  have  two  presses  and 
two  apprentices),  and  a  Charter  extending  its  rights,  and 
he  also  presented  it  with  some  Oriental  types.  Between 
1667  and  1672,  the  press  received  some  fine  types  imported 
from  Holland  by  Dr.  John  Fell,  Dean  of  Christ  Church 
and  later  Bishop  of  Oxford  (Jigs.  259  aiid  260).  A  col- 

'  It  was  Moxon  who  cut  the  symbols  used  in  John  Wilkins'  Essay  towards  a 
Real  Character,  printed  for  the  Royal  Society  (of  which  Moxon  was  a  fellow) 
in  1668.  He  also  produced  the  small  pica  Irish  type  used  in  Daniels' Irish  New 
Testament  in  1 681,  both  type  and  printing  being  paid  for  by  Robert  Boyle  — 
until  1800,  the  only  Irish  font  in  England. 

'  Savile  (1549-1622) ,  Provost  of  Eton  and  one  of  the  most  learned  English- 
men of  his  time,  was  for  years  interested  in  producing  an  edition  of  St. 
Chrysostom,  for  which  he  endea\'oured  to  secure  a  font  of  the  French 
"  Royal  Greek  "  types.  Failing  in  this,  he  purchased  abroad  a  special  Greek 
font  for  the  work,  the  preparation  of  which  cost  him  the  enormous  sum  (for 
those  days)  of  ^8000.  The  edition,  in  eight  volumes,  was  finished  in  1613. 
Savile  was  a  friend  of  Sir  Tliomas  Bodle}^  and  founded  at  Oxford  the  chairs 
of  Geometry  and  Astronomy,  which  are  still  known  by  his  name.  An  intei- 
esting  account  of  his  Greek  type  is  given  in  Robert  Proctor's  paper.  The 
Frejich  Royal  Greek  Types,  and  the  Eton  Chrysostom  (Ti'ansactions  of  the 
Bibliographical  Society,  Vol.  VII).  This  "Silver  Letter"  was  subsequently 
bequeathed  by  Sa\'ile  to  the  Uni\'ersity  of  Oxford,  then  loaned  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  and  has  since  been  lost. 

*Reed,  facing  p.  140. 


96  PRINTING  TYPES 

lection  of  Gothic,  Runic,  Icelandic,  and  Saxon  characters 
was  given  also  by  a  German,  Francis  Junius  the  younger, 
librarian  to  the  Earl  of  Arundel/  Rowe  Mores  says :  "About 
the  time  of  Mr.  Junius's  gift  to  the  Univ.  the  excellent  Bp. 
Fell,  most  strenuous  in  the  cause  of  learning,  had  regulated 
and  advanced  the  learned  press  in  the  manner  which  had 
been  intended  by  archb.  Laud,  and  which  would  by  him 
have  been  effected  had  not  the  iniquity  of  those  anarchical 
and  villainous  times  prevented.  He  gave  to  the  Univ.  a 
noble  collection  of  letter,  consisting  (besides  the  common 
founts  Rom.  and  Ital.)  of  Hebr.  Samaritan,  Syriac,  Arabic 
(Persic,  Turkish  and  Malayan  bought  of  Dr.  Hyde),  Ar- 
menian, Coptic,  iEthiopic,  Greek,  Runic,  Saxon,  English, 
and  Sclavonian :  Music,  Astronomical  and  Mathematical 
signs  and  marks,  flowers,  &c.  together  with  the  punches 
and  matrices  from  which  they  were  cast,  and  all  other  uten- 
sils and  apparatus  necessary  for  a  printing-house  belong- 
ing to  the  University."^  Fell  employed  Marshall,  afterwards 
Dean  of  Gloucester,  to  buy  some  of  these  types  in  Holland, 
and  Marshall's  negotiations  for  their  purchase  (between 
1670  and  1672)  were  chiefly  with  Abraham  van  Dyck,  son 
of  Christoffel,  the  celebrated  type-cutter,  and  Dirk  Vos- 
kens.  A  phrase  in  one  of  Marshall's  letters  is  prophetic.  "I 
se,"  he  writes,  "in  this  Printing-designe,  we  English  must 
learn  to  use  o""  own  hands  at  last  to  cut  Letters  as  well  as 

'  For  the  Fell  types,  see  the  rare  Sfiecimen  of  the  Several  Sorts  of  Letter  given 
to  the  University  by  Dr.  John  Fell,  later  Lord  Bishofi  of  Oxford.  To  which  is 
added  the  Letter  Given  by  Mr.  F.  Junius,  Oxford.  Printed  at  the  Theatre, 
A.D.  1693.  Other  editions  foUowed  in  1695,  1706,  1768,  1787,  1794,  etc. 
Some  of  these  specimens  are  reproduced  in  Hart's  JVotes  on  a  Century  of 
Tyfiografihy  at  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  1693-1794.  Oxford,  1900. 

'a  like  benefaction  for  the  University  Press,  Cambridge,  had  been  attempted 
in  1626  by  Archbishop  Ussher,  who  tried  to  get  matrices  of  Syriac,  Arabic, 
Ethiopic,  and  Samaritan  letters  from  Ley  den,  but  was  forestalled  in  this  by  the 
Elzevirs.  Before  the  advent  of  Caslon,  most  of  the  material  of  the  press  was 
carefully  chosen  from  Dutch  foundries.  See  S.  C.  Roberts'  excellent  History  of 
the  Cambridge  University  Press,  1521-1921.  Cambridge,  1921. 


Double  Pica  Roman. 
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQR 

STVUWXYZ  ABCDKFGHIK- 

PAter  nofter  qui  es  in  coelis,  fan- 
6tificetur  nomen  tuum.  Veniat 
regnum  tuum :  fiat  voluntas  tua^ficut 
in  coelo,  ita  etiam  in  terra.  Panem  no- 
ftrum  quotidianum  da  nobis  hodie* 
Et  remitte  nobis  debita  noftra,  ficut 
&remittimus  debitoribus  noftris.  Et 
ne  nos  inducas  in  tentationem,  fed 
liberanosabillomalo.  Amen. 

Double  Pica  Itdlich 

<^^BCDEFGHIJKLCMM 

NO'P^^STVUWXrZ^.^M 

^J^Ater  nojier  qui  es  in  coelts^  fanclifi^ 
•^  cetur  nomen  tuum.  Veniat  regnum 
tuum :  fiat  wJuntas  tua,  ficut  in  coelo^  ita 
etiam  in  terra,  Panem  noftrum  quotidian 
num  da  nobis  hodie.  Et  remitte  nobis  de- 
bita noftray  ficut  8^  remittimm  debit  or i-- 
bus  noftris.  Et  ne  nos  inducas  in  tentatio- 
nemy  fed  libera  nos  ab  illo  malo.  Amen. 

259.  Roman  and  Italic  given  by  Dr.  Fell  to  the  University  Press.,  Oxford 


Englifh  Englifh. 

Omt  f  ati^er,  tol^tc^  art  in  fteaben ;  ^alloto-^ 
eD  be  t]^^  iSame.  E]^^  fitngnom  come,  s:]^^ 
Mil  tt\^ont  in  tmt\^>  a^  it  i^  in  ^eaben*  <Bite 
ttgJ  tl^is  ua^  out  Milv  breath*  ^nD  tbrgite  ngj 
our  trefpaf e0,  ^js  w  iotq,iu  t^cm  tl^at  trefpaC^ 
aisainft  u0*  and  leaD  w^  not  into  temptation^ 
JBut  Deliter  m  from  etJil*    Amen. 

New  Englifh  Englijfh. 

O^r  Jfat|jer,  tojic^  art  in  ]^eat?eit ;  i^attotueb  fee 
t$p  Jl^ame.  CS^  togtJom  come,  ID!)^  tuift  fee 
Ijone  in  tart|^,  :^0  it  i^  in  Jealsen,  <0itje  m  t^i$  ^ap 
our  iJail^  httutf.  £nS5  fargitie  n^  our  trefpaffe^,  &c. 

Pica  Englifh. 

OcEc  if ati^ejf ,  to^tcj^  art  in  l^eatjen  5  l^allotoeD  be  t^p  j^ame* 
C^p  feingDom  come«  C^p  toill  be  Done  in  eart^,  0s  it  is 
in  beaten.  (Site  us  t^ts  tjap  our  Dailp  breao.  Snts  forgltae  us 
our  trefpalTes,  ^$  toe  forgitje  t!)em  t^at  trefpafs  agatnlt  us. 
^n^  leaD  us  not  into  temptation ;  115ut  ueliter  us  from  etsil : 
i?or  t^ine  is  t^e  ^^ingoom,  ano  t^e  poloer,  ano  tlje  glorp,  jfcr 
etjer  ano  etjer,  Amea. 

Long  Primer  Englifh. 

05Ur  :^at!)cr,  tDl)ic!)  art  in  l^caben;  ilaUoiucD  be  t^p  ij^ame.  <Elj? 
bingtiom  com^.  Cljp  tnill  be  Done  in  eartlj,  ^3  it  10  in  beaten, 
(]5it)e  u0  ti)i0  Dap  out  bailp  breati.  3^nD  focgitoe  u0  our  trcfpa(re0>  ad 
toe  forgibe  t^em  tbat  tcefpaf0  againU  u0.  l^nh  leaD  u0  not  into  tem- 
ptation ;  J15ut  beliber  u0  from  ebil.  :^or  t\)m  is  tlji  Hins5om>  t^e  potoec, 
ttn5  t^e  glot?,  for  cDec  anD  euer.  Amen. 


260.  Black-letter  given  by  Dr.  Fell  to  the  University  Press,  Oxford 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  97 

print  w*^  them.  For  y®  Founders  here  being  reasonably  fur- 
nished w*^  Matrices  from  Franckfort,  y®  old  van  Dijke,  &c. 
have  no  regard  to  cutting  &  justifying,  unles  perhaps  to 
supply  a  Defect,  or  two.  So  that  some  famous  Cutters,  they 
say,  are  gone,  to  other  Countries  for  want  of  imployment. 
And  now  not  one  here  to  be  found."  ^  Dr.  Fell  also  imported 
a  Dutch  letter-cutter,  Peter  Walpergen,  to  direct  the  Oxford 
foundry.  Walpergen  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  and  the  son 
in  turn  by  Sylvester  Andrews.  Dr.  Fell  also  had  a  hand  in 
the  establishment  of  the  Wolvercote  paper-mill,  now  the 
property  of  the  Oxford  University  Press.  The  matrices  of 
the  Fell  types  were  the  basis  of  the  Oxford  Foundry,  es- 
tablished in  1667,  and  at  the  present  day  in  effective  opera- 
tion. 

The  University  Press  was  transferred  to  the  Sheldonian 
Theatre  in  1669  (built  by  Archbishop  Sheldon,  it  is  said 
at  Fell's  suggestion),  and  during  the  life  of  Fell,  its  con- 
stant and  efficient  friend,  it  produced  some  notable  books. 
Its  charter  was  granted  in  1682  ;  a  little  later  it  obtained  a 
privilege  for  printing  Bibles.  In  1688,  it  was  removed  from 
the  Theatre — the  Learned  Press  to  one  locality,  the  Bible 
Press  to  another.  The  receipts  from  the  copyright  of  Claren- 
don's Rebellion  chiefly  provided  the  money  for  the  erection  in 
1713  of  the  Clarendon  Building,  designed  for  the  press  by 
Vanbrugh.  In  1830,  it  was  removed  to  its  present  building, 
where  the  Bible  Press  and  Learned  Press  are  united." 

*  Marshall's  letters  are  reprinted  in  Hart's  J\/'otes  on  a  Century  of  Thffiog- 
rafiy  at  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  pp.  161-172. 

'  For  a  brief  account  of  the  Press  with  Usts  of  its  most  important  books,  see 
the  admirable  brochure,  The  Oxford  University  Press.  A  Brief  Account  by 
Falconer  Madan.  Oxford,  1908.  See,  also,  the  same  author's  Chart  of  Ox- 
ford Printing,  1904.  For  an  elaborate  account  of  the  Fell  types,  with  fac- 
similes, etc.,  consult  Horace  Hart's  JVotes  on  a  Century  of  Tyfiogra/ihy, 
already  alluded  to.  The  latter  book  is  printed  from  the  Fell  types,  as  is  also 
Some  Account  of  the  Oxford  University  Press,  1468-1921.  Oxford,  1922. 


98  PRINTING  TYPES 

The  restrictions  which  the  Government  placed  on  print- 
ing have  hitherto  been  alluded  to.  The  separation  of  print- 
ing from  letter-founding  was  a  gradual  process,  but  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  I  —  in  1637 — the  Star  Chamber  decree 
shows  that  the  establishment  of  type-founding  as  a  distinct 
business  was  accomplished.  The  object  of  this  decree  was 
to  restrict  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in  letter-found- 
ing; and  four  authorized  founders  were  appointed,  namely, 
Grismand,  Wright,  Nicholls,  and  Fifield,  who  probably  had 
been  making  types  for  some  time  previous.  It  was  the  son 
of  Nicholls  who  produced  the  first  known  "specimen"  of 
English  type. 

These  men  have  generally  been  known  as  the  Polyglot 
Founders,  because  they  were  later  associated  in  the  produc- 
tion of  that  famous  work,  Walton's  Polyglot  Bible — the 
fourth  Polyglot  produced.  The  first  was  the  Complutensian 
Polyglot  of  Cardinal  Ximenez,  printed  at  Alcala  in  1517; 
followed  by  the  Plantin  Polyglot  of  1572,  published  at  Ant- 
werp, and  the  Paris  Polyglot  of  1645, edited  by  Le  Jay.  Each 
succeeding  work  surpassed  its  predecessor  in  the  number 
of  languages  employed,  the  London  Polyglot  containing 
all  that  were  in  the  Paris  Polyglot  and  adding  Persian  and 
Ethiopic;^  though  as  a  piece  of  printing  it  is  inferior  in 
beauty  to  the  earlier  Polyglots.  It  was  issued  between  1654 
and  1657  in  six  folio  volumes  by  the  distinguished  printer- 
publisher  Thomas  Roycroft,  who  also  brought  out  Castell's 
learned  Heptaglot  Lexicon.,  which  supplemented  it.  Some 
roman  and  italic  types  employed  in  the  Bible  were  (as  I 
have  said)  the  types  that  Day  cut  for  Archbishop  Parker. 
The  characters  for  the  nine  languages  used  were  all  of 
English  make,  and  some  of  these  became  models  for  later 
Oriental  fonts  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Roycroft  (remem- 

*See  Reed,  pp.  169,  170,  for  comparison  of  the  four  Polyglot  Bibles. 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  99 

bered  for  his  fine  editions  of  the  classics  printed  for  Ogilby) 
was,  on  the  accession  of  Charles  II,  made  King's  Printer  of 
Oriental  languages,  and  Walton  received  a  mitre ! 

The  three  best  London  foundries — none  too  good,  be  it 
said  —  of  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
that  of  Joseph  Moxon  (author  of  Mechanick  Exercises); 
that  of  his  successors,  Robert  and  Silvester  Andrews,  which 
was  very  well  furnished  in  roman,  italic,  and  learned  fonts, 
as  well  as  Anglo-Saxon  and  Irish  characters ;  and  that  of 
James  and  Thomas  Grover,  who  possessed  types  which 
came  from  Day,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  and  others,  and  a  re- 
markable Greek  uncial  font  later  owned  by  the  James  foun- 
dry. But  the  types  of  most  seventeenth  century  English  books 
were  probably  Dutch.  For  this  there  were  several  reasons. 
One  was  the  success  of  the  Elzevirs,  then  the  prominent 
publishers  and  printers  of  Europe,  whose  types  were  Dutch. 
Then  there  was  the  influence  of  fashion,  for  "the  caprices  of 
the  court  have  always  been  to  some  extent  responsible  for 
the  evolution  of  taste";  and  court  taste  was  to  some  degree 
Dutch.  Moreover,  with  the  Revolution,  English  restrictions 
on  the  importation  of  types  were  removed,  and  the  use  of 
Dutch  fonts  came  about  partly  because,  on  account  of  pre- 
vious hampering  governmental  regulations,  there  were  not 
enough  trained  letter-cutters  left  in  England  to  produce  good 
types.  That  was  the  most  potent  reason  of  all  for  the  general 
English  use  of  the  Dutch  letter. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  great 
James  foundry,^  which  contained  material  produced  by  De 
Worde,  Day,  the  London  Polyglot  founders,  Moxon,  and 
many  more,  was  procuring  its  types  from  Holland,  and  an 

*  It  was  Thomas  James  who  cruelly  thwarted  William  Ged,  inventor  of 
stereotyping.  In  a  house  which  was  part  of  the  priory  of  St.  Bartholomew 
the  Great,  Smithfield  (at  one  time  occupied  by  James) ,  Benjamin  Franklin 
was  employed  by  Samuel  Palmer. 


100  PRINTING  TYPES 

account  of  Thomas  James's  negotiations  there  in  1710,  when 
he  went  to  obtain  material  for  his  foundry,  is  given  in  a  series 
of  unconsciously  humorous  letters  in  Rowe  Mores'  Disser- 
tation} His  purchases  from  Dutch  letter-founders  were  from 
Athias,  Voskens,  Cupi,  and  Rolu.  Reed  calls  attention  to 
"  the  intimate  relations  which  existed  at  that  period  between 
English  printers  and  Dutch  founders."  He  adds,  "There 
was  probably  more  Dutch  type  in  England  between  1700 
and  1720  than  there  was  English.  The  Dutch  artists  ap- 
peared for  the  time  to  have  the  secret  of  the  true  shape  of 
the  Roman  letter;  their  punches  were  more  carefully  fin- 
ished, their  matrices  better  justified,  and  their  types  of  better 
metal,  and  better  dressed,  than  any  of  which  our  country 
could  boast."  ^ 

The  rise  of  William  Caslon,  the  greatest  of  English 
letter-founders,  stopped  the  importation  of  Dutch  types; 
and  so  changed  the  history  of  English  type-cutting,  that 
after  his  appearance  the  types  used  in  England  were  most 
of  them  cut  by  Caslon  himself,  or  else  fonts  modelled  on  the 
style  which  he  made  popular.  An  examination  of  types 
displayed  in  the  specimen  in  Watson's  History  of  the  Art 
of  Printings  issued  in  Edinburgh  in  1713,  shows  what  the 
Dutch  types  were  {fig.  261);  and  Caslon's  various  speci- 
mens will  show  the  English  style.  These,  with  Baskerville's 
specimens,  are  the  chief  sources  for  the  study  of  eighteenth 
century  English  type-forms. 


*  Rowe  Mores'  Dissertation,  pp.  51-57. 
'Reed,  p.  114. 


Great-PrimmeRj  Roman, 

T^HE  Flatterer  will  quit  thee  in  thy 
-■-  Adverfity  :  But  the  Fool  will  ne- 
ver forfake  thee.  If  thou  hide  thy 
Treafure  upon  the  Earth,  how  canft 
thou  exped  to  find  it  in  Heaven?  Canft 
thou  hope  to  be  a  Sharer,  where  thou 
haft  repofed  no  Stock  ?  Give  not  thy 
Tongue  too  great  a  Liberty,  left  it  take 
thee  Prifoner.  Wouldft  thou  rraffick 
with  the  beft  Advantage,  and  crown 
thy  Virtues  with  the    beft   Return  ? 

Great-Primmer,  ItalicL      xxxv 

TJOTV  cam'fl  thou  by  thy  Honour  ?  By 
-*^  ^  Money,  How  cam'ft  thou  hy  thy 
Money  ^  By  Extortion,  Compare  thy 
Tenny-lVorth  with  the  Trice ;  and  tell  me 
truly ^  how  truly  Honourable  thou  art  ?  It 
is  an  ill  Turchafe,  that^:i  encumired  rvith 
a  Curfe :  j^nd  that  Honour  will  he  ruinom^ 
that  is  built  on  Ruins,  Detain  not  the  Wages 
from  the  poor  Man  that  hath  earned  it,  left 
GOI)  with'holdthy  Wages  from  thee. — - 
Thou /halt  not  proffer  for  bis  Sake,  The  poor 

261,  Dutch  Types  used  in  England:  Watson  Specimen 
Edinburgh^  1713 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  101 

II 

CASLON'S  work  marks  a  turning-point  in  English 
type-founding,  so  I  shall  outline  briefly  what  he  stood 
for  in  the  history  of  English  types. 

William  Caslon  was  born  in  1692  at  Cradley,  Worces- 
tershire, near  Halesowen  in  Shropshire,  and  in  the  parish 
register  of  Halesowen  his  baptism  is  entered  as  "child  of 
George  Casselon  by  Mary  his  wife."  Tradition  has  it  that 
the  surname  was  originally  Caslona,  after  an  Andalusian 
town,  whence  in  1688  William  Caslon's  father  came  to 
England.  Caslon  as  a  lad  was  apprenticed  to  an  engraver  of 
ornamental  gun-locks  and  barrels  in  London.  In  1716,  he 
set  up  a  shop  of  his  own  there,  where  he  did  silver-chasing 
and  also  cut  tools  for  bookbinders.  John  Watts  (a  partner 
of  the  second  Tonson)  was  accustomed  to  employ  him  to 
cut  lettering  for  bindings  —  and  sometimes  punches  for 
type.  About  1720,  William  Bowyer  the  elder  ^  is  said  to  have 
taken  Caslon  to  the  James  workshop,  to  initiate  him  into 
letter-founding;  and  Bowyer,  his  son-in-law  Bettenham, 
and  Watts  eventually  advanced  money  to  enable  Caslon  to 

*  William  Bowyer  the  elder  (1663-1737)  was  printer  for  Thomas  Hollis, 
benefactor  of  Harvard  College.  His  son,  William  Bowyer,  "the  learned 
printer,"  received  from  the  President,  Edward  Holyoke,  and  the  Fellows,  in 
December,  1767,  a  vote  of  thanks  for  seveml  valuable  books  sent  them,  and 
"  particularly  his  late  curious  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  witla  learned 
Notes."  To  one  of  the  books  which  Bowyer  presented  (  The  Letters  of  Eras- 
mus) he  prefixed  a  Latin  inscription,  as  he  did  in  the  Greek  Testament  just 
alluded  to.  For  President  Holyoke  says  in  his  letter :  "We  are  greatly  obhged 
to  you  for  the  favourable  sentiments  you  have  been  pleased  so  elegantly  to  ex- 
press of  our  Seminary,  in  the  blank  leaf  of  tlie  New  Testament ;  and  we  hope 
it  will  prove  a  powerful  stimulus  to  our  youth,  more  and  more  to  deserve  so 
good  a  character.  This  Society  is  as  yet  but  in  its  infant-state;  but  we  trust, 
that,  by  the  generosity  of  the  benefactors  whom  the  Divine  Providence  is  rais- 
ing up  to  us,  and  by  the  smiles  of  Heaven  upon  our  endeavours  to  form  the 
youth  here  to  knowledge  and  virtue,  it  will  every  day  m.ore  eifectuaUy  answer 
the  important  ends  of  its  foundation." 


102  PRINTING  TYPES 

set  up  a  foundry  of  his  own.  The  only  good  foundries  then 
were  those  of  the  Oxford  Press,  of  Grover,  and  of  James.  In 
the  same  year  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Know- 
ledge engaged  Caslon  to  cut  a  font  of  Arabic  of  English 
size,  for  a  Psalter  and  New  Testament  for  Oriental  use — 
ultimately  printed  respectively  in  1725  and  1727.  This  he 
did,  and  the  story  runs  that  he  cut  the  letters  of  his  own 
name  in  pica  roman,  and  printed  it  at  the  bottom  of  a  proof 
of  his  Arabic.  This  roman  letter  was  so  much  admired, 
that  Caslon  was  persuaded  to  cut  a  font  of  pica  roman  and 
italic;  and  in  1722,  with  Bowyer's  encouragement,  he  cut 
the  English  fonts  of  roman,  italic,  and  Hebrew  used  in 
Bowyer's  folio  1726  edition  of  Selden's  works.  These  and 
some  Coptic  types  for  Wilkins'  edition  of  the  Pentateuch, 
published  in  1731,  were,  Hke  the  Hebrew,  cut  under  Bow- 
yer's direction. Caslon's  beautiful  pica  "black"  was  cut  about 

1733.  Several  other  of  his  "exotic"  types  appeared  before 

1734.  In  accomplishing  all  this,  Caslon  had  been  from  the 
first  effectively  backed;  and  he  ended  with  a  complete 
foundry,  which  by  his  own  labour  and  some  discriminating 
later  purchases  became  the  best  in  England.  His  types  were 
bought  by  printers  abroad.  He  arrived,  says  Mores,^  "  to  that 

'  Edward  Rowe  Mores,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  Hfe  (in  1772) ,  purchased  all 
the  older  portions  of  the  enormous  collection  of  types,  punches,  and  matrices 
of  the  James  foundry — an  accumulation  which  dated  from  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. From  his  examination  of  its  material  he  prepared  an  essay  intended  to 
preserve  the  memory  of  this  foundry,  the  most  ancient  in  the  kingdom,  and 
as  an  introduction  to  a  specimen-sheet  which  was  to  show  what  his  collection 
possessed.  The  specimen  was  not  published  until  after  his  death.  The  essay 
finally  appeared  four  years  later  to  accompany  the  catalogue  of  the  auction 
sale  of  the  collection.  The  title-page  reads:  A  Dissertation  ufion  English 
Ty/iogra/ihical  Founders  and  Founderies.  By  Edward  Ro-tve  Mores,  A.M. 
isf  A.S.S.,  MOCCLxxvni.  This  title  and  the  final  notes  were  added  by  John 
Nichols,  the  printer,  who  bought  the  whole  edition  (only  eighty  copies)  at  the 
sale  of  Mores'  books,  in  1778.  The  Dissertation  contains  an  immense  amount 
of  curious  information  about  early  types  and  type-founders  in  England. 


52^  S  ti  —  ^ 

3  <a  ■—  ■=  » 

..^  Ck>  £  S  «^  sa 

g«2     €) 

-»  e  w  « "^ 

f§tg-.2R 
<3  w^c; 


;:^  .§  "^^  c  ' 


^  ^5 


fe  6  <• 
"eg 

g  «2 


^3- 
3  JJM 


3  3? 


1'  < 

5l2 


a  "s  ?  • 


§.^^r^ 


§5  ^^  ^    ^  5^ 


11^ 


^^^§11^ 


^     <3  «V^ 

g       Q       'U 

^  i;  o. 


-S  v§  :::;  15:! 


5  ^^  ^^  lO 


»-    AiS; 


J^-^^  -.• 


P    <3  ^  ^  ^''   «*  §  O 

5<|||ll9 


I     3  r\-. 

^    ^  ^    o 
U     fl    o  <^ 

'-'      (U     5- 

C    ^    u, 

J  *-•  c  yi 
^  g-B  B 

Q   o  ^'^  ^ 


po 


S    rt    «  13 

o  U  <5 


(5:5 


C  T! 


"1  s 

t!  -1  - 

M    3  r=I  cr*  3 

-.  '^  a  J  ij 

"G  rv.  Ji  ctj 

=:  rt  '^    rt 

<    2  ^  -  "" 


f-    C 


o 


^  2  i3 


^- 


-*  *J^  ^i^ 

O  ,  5J 


•5  rS  Ph 
2-S  < 


g ''-  "-■ 


s-s 


1  S  1^ 


y  'c 


CL. 


-a 
3  — 

2    rt  '^ 


0-3  > 


"  =    '^  'rt  -3  'c  h 


e^  <fe  g  g  S  3c  S 


;'0   HI   o 


:5  Svi 
^  s  p 

.  c 
si  g 
■5  o  S 

>'V  a 

3    ol 

"  E  .: 
o  oi  c 
!2.>  V 


W  i3 


n<« 


t;  ^    C  _Q 


vs  "-       u  "  o  rr 


•-03 
--3 '5  E 


.5  c  lu--; 


c  S 


g^-- 


2-C 


&2 


S  c- 

rt    O  •-   -< 
C   CT3  ■S 


o 


< 


(JQ 

cqU 


i 

^ 


QSw  £  3 


1)    J3 


3  s  '3 


i: 


dS6^ 


^>h<a 


n  n  o  r  p; 
f  r  f  i.  • 
34  5  c  is  — 

y  "^  P  s:  P 

U  t\  *•"  I — 

ss  &  r  c  p- 
;£  a  !^  ?  ^  js 

g    C  i£   O   & 

:  B  ?  ^  "  -9 


£  P' 


e.-»--r.i 


.  ^.%  .-el  1 


3'-? 


'?'S-3  5. 


i  S  ^  i  5  KJs, 


•£  S»  s  "13  C 


2|3- 


o  s  i 


••ii  C.2M     a, 


■J  « 


g.  .8gO 
o 


=  f5v£  S' 


!e 


jM 


2i  y  •o'a  "? 


GV, 


£"5  <,-5.nai, 

.S  '^  -a  r-  c  * 
■3  g  i  c  a.S 

c  G3 §  sw 


(L)     G     r^    C^ 

g  c^   c^   O 


^^1;! 


till 


•%l 


^t!;i^l-lBs 


<C  'c '^  5  a  ^  i;  5  ^s< 

_.  i  •;  s  5 .;  2  5^ 


:ii-Eg:s:>  2«^>■ 
•s.s-  3  >  h  .^x 


2^  t 


^ss 


i^i '"«==  S.vsm        :;.l3|5S..-l5 


II' 3  >  8  1 

-  e'IIetIsI-j 

z  §.=  2  "  23  "  gE 
'-'    o  "•=  o  S  0.3  stt, 


=  11^— "INS'   ^|l-ii|B|s, 


'e  £  E 

_  n  =  2       Be;s< 


e  i,- 


,fc-S- 


1; 


!i 


am 


"    -^  c":  S'8  I 


E  ^-Q 


^  o  °  8 1  "~  "^5  ^* 


I?l3llll 


I       I 


CJ 


a> 


•^ 
t 

I 
^ 


o 


1)  ^ 

^§ ^  §  s 


I  si  8 

^    ^    ^ 


C3 


|t< 


d' 


<^a 


"? 
^ 

^ 
^ 


CO 


a 


^ 


I 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  103 

perfection  so  that  we  may,  without  fear  of  contradiction, 
make  the  assertion  that  a  fairer  specimen  cannot  be  found 
in  Europe;  that  is,  Not  in  the  World."  When  Caslon's  first 
specimen  appeared,  his  reputation  was  made.  His  subse- 
quent history  is  largely  the  record  of  the  different  fonts  which 
he  cut. 

Though  Caslon  began  his  foundry  about  1720,  it  was 
not  until  1734  that  he  issued  this  specimen-sheet,  which 
exhibited  the  results  of  fourteen  years  of  labour  {Jig.  262). 
It  sho^\'s  various  fonts  of  type,  all  cut  by  Caslon  except  the 
Canon  roman,  which  came  from  Andrews  (a  "descend- 
ant" of  the  Moxon  foundry) ;  the  English  Syriac,  cast  from 
matrices  used  for  the  Paris  Polyglot  Bible  of  Le  Jay,  and 
a  pica  Samaritan  cut  by  Dummers,  a  Dutchman.  A  reprint 
of  this  specimen,  with  a  change  of  imprint,  appeared  in  an 
edition  of  Chambers'  Cydopsedia  in  1738,  and  a  note  accom- 
panying it  says :  "  The  above  were  all  cast  in  the  foundery  of 
Mr.  W.  Caslon,  a  person  who,  though  not  bred  to  the  art  of 
letter-founding,  has,  by  dint  of  genius,  arrived  at  an  excel- 
lency in  it  unknown  hitherto  in  England,  and  which  even 
surpasses  anything  of  the  kind  done  in  Holland  or  else- 
where." Caslon  was  joined  in  his  business  by  his  son,  Wil- 
liam II,  in  1742,  and  they  constantly  enlarged  their  stock 
of  types,  both  roman  and  "learned."  It  was  apropos  of  this 
expansion  that  a  rather  startling  phrase  occurs  in  Ames' 
account  of  their  foundry.  "The  art,"  he  says,  "seems  to  be 
carried  to  its  greatest  perfection  by  Mr.  William  Caslon,  and 
his  son,  who,  besides  the  type  of  all  manner  of  living  lan- 
guages now  by  him,  has  offered  to  perform  the  same  for  the 
dead,  that  can  be  recovered,  to  the  satisfaction  of  any  gentle- 
man desirous  of  the  same." 

Fournier,  writing  (not  too  accurately)  in  1766,  says  : 
"England  has  few  foundries,  but  they  are  well  equipped 


104  PRINTING  TYPES 

with  all  kinds  of  types.  The  principal  ones  are  those  of 
Thomas  Cottrell  at  Oxford,  James  Watson  at  Edinburgh, 
William  Caslon  &  Son  at  London,  and  John  Baskerville  at 
Birmingham.  The  last  two  deserve  special  attention.  The 
types  in  Caslon's  foundry  have  been  cut  for  the  most  part 
by  his  son  with  much  cleverness  and  neatness.  The  speci- 
mens which  were  published  of  them  in  1749  contain  many 
different  kinds  of  types."  ^ 

A  contemporary  print  of  Caslon's  foundry  shows  four  cast- 
ers at  work,  a  rubber  (Joseph  Jackson),  a  dresser  (Thomas 
Cottrell),  and  some  boys  breaking  off  the  type-metal  jets. 
Jackson  and  Cottrell  subsequently  became  eminent  type- 
founders themselves.  Caslon  seems  to  have  been  a  "tender 
master,"  and  he  was  a  kindly,  cultivated  man.  In  his  Chis- 
well  Street  house  he  had  a  concert  room,  and  within  it  an 
organ ;  and  there  he  entertained  his  friends  at  monthly  con- 
certs of  chamber  music.  I  have  seen  the  attractive  old  rooms 
where  these  musical  parties  were  held,  in  the  building  in 
Chiswell  Street  —  since  pulled  down,  to  be  replaced  by  a 
more  convenient  structure. 

William  Caslon  the  elder  (who  was  thrice  married)  died 
in  London  in  1766,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four.  The  stock  of 
his  foundry  about  the  time  of  his  death  may  be  seen  from 
his  Specimen  of  1763.  This  was  the  first  specimen-<^oA- 
issued  in  England,^  and  from  it  some  pages  are  reproduced 

^Manuel  Tyfiografihique,  Vol.  II,  p.  xxxviii. 

*Also  see  Luckombe's  History  of  Printing,  in  which  a  reprint  of  that 
part  of  Caslon's  Specimen  of  1763  which  contains  the  types,  is  shov/n.  Tlie 
flowers  are  not  the  same.  In  Caslon's  specimens,  variants  of  the  same  size 
of  type  are  given,  called ' '  No.  1 ' '  and  ' '  No.  2  "  —  the  former  a  httle  larger 
face  than  the  latter,  though  cast  on  the  same  body — as  in  Luckombe's  re- 
print. In  the  Caslon  Specimen  of  1796,  three  faces  of  the  same  size  of  type  are 
shown.  Thus  the  name  Caslon,  says  Mr.  De  Vinne,  "  as  applied  to  a  distinct 
face  of  type,  is  consequently  not  exactly  descriptive ;  it  may  be  somewhat  mis- 
leading." 


Two  Lines  Great  Primer. 

Ououlque  tandem 
abutere  Catilinaj  p 
Sluoujque  tandem  a- 
butere^  Catilina^pa- 

Two  Lines  Englifh. 

Quoufque  tandem  abu- 
tere, Catilina,  patientia 
noftra?  quamdiu  nos  e» 
^oufque  tandem  abutere 
Catilina^  patientia  noj 


Two  Lines  Pica, 

Quoulque  tandem  abutere, 
Catilina,  patientia  noftra  ?  qu 
^oufque  tandem  abutere^  Ca-^ 
tilina^  patientia  noftral  quam- 

263.  Roman  and  Italic:  William  Caslon  £s?  Son's  Specimen 
Loiidon^  1763 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  105 

(/^5. 263  a72(/264).Hisson,  William  CaslonII(  1720-1778), 
succeeded  him  at  his  death,  and  maintained  the  place  the 
house  had  won  for  itself.  On  the  death  of  William  Cas- 
lon  II,  the  property  was  divided  between  his  widow  —  Eliza- 
beth (Cartlitch)  Caslon  —  and  his  two  sons,  William  Cas- 
lon  and  Henry  Caslon  I.  William  Caslon  III  (1754-1833),^ 
who  had  a  son  William  (1781-1869),  disposed  of  his  in- 
terest in  1792  to  his  mother,  and  to  Elizabeth  (Rowe)  Cas- 
lon, the  widow  of  his  brother  Henry.  The  latter  lady,  whose 
partner  was  Nathaniel  Catherwood,  had  a  son,  Henry  Cas- 
lon (1786-1850).  He,  in  partnership  with  John  James 
Catherwood,  with  Martin  Livermore,  and  alone,  continued 
the  house,  which  finally  descended  to  the  last  of  the  family, 
Henry  William  Caslon  (1814-1874).  On  his  death,  the 
business  was  taken  over,  under  the  style  of  H.  W.  Caslon  & 
Co.,  by  his  manager,  T.  W.  Smith,  whose  sons  ultimately 
assumed  the  name  of  Caslon,  and  the  foundry  remains  in 
their  hands  to-day."  The  developments  of  the  Caslons'  out- 
put during  their  long  and  honourable  history  are  described 
on  later  pages. 

Why  are  William  Caslon's  types  so  excellent  and  so 
famous?  To  explain  this  and  make  it  really  clear,  is  diffi- 
cult. While  he  modelled  his  letters  on  Dutch  types,  they 
were  much  better ;  for  he  introduced  into  his  fonts  a  quality 
of  interest,  a  variety  of  design,  and  a  delicacy  of  modelling, 
which  few  Dutch  types  possessed.  Dutch  fonts  were  mo- 
notonous, but  Caslon's  fonts  were  not  so.  His  letters  when 

*  This  William  Caslon  III,  though  selling  his  interest  in  the  family  business, 
bought  Joseph  Jackson's  foundry  (in  operation  from  1763  to  1792),  which 
he  managed  under  his  own  name  until  1803  — the  succeeding  styles  of  the 
house  being  Caslon  &  Son  and  William  Caslon  (1807-19). 
'  The  account  of  the  foundry  which  has  been  issued  by  the  present  owners 
under  the  title  of  Two  Centuries  of  Tijfiefounding  should  be  consulted.  It  is 
very  fully  illusti-ated  by  portraits,  reproductions  of  types,  ornaments,  etc. 


106  PRINTING  TYPES 

analyzed,  especially  in  the  smaller  sizes,  are  not  perfect  in- 
dividually; but  in  mass  their  eiFect  is  agreeable.  That  is,  I 
think,  their  secret — a  perfection  of  the  whole,  derived  from 
harmonious  but  not  necessarily  perfect  individual  letter- 
forms.  To  say  precisely  hoiv  Caslon  arrived  at  his  efl'ects 
is  not  simple ;  but  he  did  so  because  he  was  an  artist.  He 
knew  how  to  make  types,  if  ever  a  man  did,  that  were  (to 
quote  once  more  Bernard's  phrase)  "friendly  to  the  eye," 
or  "comfortable"  —  to  use  Dibdin's  happy  term.  Further- 
more, his  types  are  thoroughly  English.  There  are  other 
letters  more  elegant ;  for  the  Caslon  characters  do  not  com- 
pare in  that  respect  with  the  letters  of  Garamond  or  Grand- 
jean.  But  in  their  defects  and  quahties  they  are  the  result 
of  a  taste  typically  Anglo-Saxon,  and  represent  to  us  the 
flowering  of  a  sturdy  English  tradition  in  typography.  Lack- 
ing a  "national"  form  of  letter,  \n^  in  America  (who  are 
mainly  governed  by  English  printing  traditions)  have  noth- 
ing better.  Caslon  types  are,  too,  so  beautiful  in  mass,  and 
above  all  so  legible  and  "common-sense,"  that  they  can 
never  be  disregarded,  and  I  doubt  if  they  will  ever  be  dis- 
placed. 

Caslon's  ornaments  or  flowers  deserve  in  their  way  as 
much  praise  as  his  types.  "To  a  designer's  eyes  they  have," 
says  Mr.  W.  A.  Dwiggins,  "taken  as  individual  patterns,  an 
inevitable  quality,  a  finality  of  right  construction  that  baf- 
fles any  attempt  to  change  or  improve.  .  .  .  Excellent  as 
single  spots,  the  Caslon  flowers  multiply  their  beauties  when 
composed  in  bands  or  borders  as  ornamentation  for  letter- 
press. They  then  become  a  true  flowering  of  the  letter  forms 
—  as  though  particular  groups  of  words  had  been  told  off" 
for  special  ornamental  duty  and  had  blossomed  at  com- 
mand into  intricate,  but  always  typographical  patterns. 


Two  Lines  Great  Primer  Black. 

aniibeitfurttietJje 
reftp  enacteli,  Cliat 


Double  Pica  Black. 


^ttti  ht  it  furtfjer  Ijerefi^  ena* 
tteti»  tSDJjat  tJje  J^a^o^s,  iSai* 
liff0,  0^  ot|)er  5^ atj  iSfficers;* 

Great  Primer  Black. 

Tinn  U  it  futtijer  ijereftp  trntttH, 
3!3)at  ti)e  fl^apo?fif,  »aiUffs,  o?  o-- 
tljer  l)eaD  Df6ter0  of  etoetp  Xoton 
anU  place  co?po?ate,  anU  Citg  toit* 

Englilh  Black. 

ann  te  it  futt^er  fjerebp  enaftetr,  C6at  rte  a^a^ 
pois,  OBaiUflf^,  olotber&eatiflDfficergofetjerp 
Cotott  ann  place  co^poiate,  ann  Citp  toitfjin 
t6i0  IRealm,  ijeing  3lufiice  oi  3lufiice0  of  Peace, 
ftall  |)atje  tjje  fame  autfjo^itg  bp  uettue  of  tW 
^ft,  toit&in  t6e  Umitg  anD  piecinfts  of  tfjeir  3I«-' 

Englilh  Black.  No  2. 

antJ  lie  it  fiittjer  ^erelip  enacteti,  Cfjat  tfie 
^apoas5,  IBailiffsS,  o?  otfjer  BeaD  mittt^  of 
tuei;p  Coton  and  place  coapojate,  anti  Citp 
tottSin  tjjtjj  Eealm,  being  3luaice  o?  31utticejs 
of  Ptace,  ffiall  ftaije  tfte  fame  autljojitp,  bp 
uertue  of  tftisj  aict,  toitjin  t6e  limits  anD  pje- 

H 

264.  Black-letter:  William  Caslon  £s?  'S'o/z'*  Specimen 
London^  1763 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  107 

This  faculty  possessed  by  the  Caslon  ornaments  of  keeping 
an  unmistakable  type  quality  through  all  their  graceful 
evolutions  sets  them  apart  from  the  innumerable  offerings 
of  the  type  founders'  craft  as  a  unique  group.  .  .  .  From  the 
point  of  view  of  the  pressman,  as  practical  w^orking  types 
for  impressing  ink  into  paper,  they  may  be  claimed  to  be 
better,  so  far  as  English  and  American  designs  are  con- 
cerned, than  any  type-flowers  made  since  their  period.  The 
proportion  of  printing  surface  to  open  paper  ...  is  excel- 
lently adapted  for  the  purposes  of  clean,  sharp  impression. 
Certain  ones  have  elements  broken  by  tint-lines  into  a  clear- 
printing  gray,  and  it  will  be  observed  that  this  tint  is  not  the 
gray  of  copper-plate,  but  has  the  weight  and  solidity  of  a 
printing  surface  backed  by  metal"  {Jigs.  265  and  266). 


Ill 

BASKERVILLE  is  the  other  great  name  in  eighteenth 
century  English  type-founding.  Here  we  have  a  very 
different  influence  emanating  from  a  very  different  kind  of 
man.  His  types  were  not  so  good  as  Caslon's,  though  to  an 
untrained  eye  their  fonts  seem  much  alike ;  but  the  slight 
touch  of  over-delicacy  which  the  Baskerville  letter  pos- 
sessed was  finally  to  develop  a  rival  which  would  drive 
Caslon's  type,  for  a  time,  from  the  field.  Baskerville's  char- 
acters had  this  advantage — that  they  were  in  line  with  the 
tendency  toward  lighter  type-forms  which  was  coming  over 
European  printing ;  and  although  his  fonts  never  had  much 
vogue  in  England,  they  did  have  an  enormous  influence 
on  the  later  development  of  English  type-forms,  and  on  the 
type-forms  of  Europe. 

John  Baskerville  was  born  in  1 706.  He  was  first  a  writ- 


108  PRINTING  TYPES 

ing-master  at  Birmingham,  and  then  turned  to  the  trade  of 
japanning — of  trays,  sniifF-boxes,  etc. — in  which  he  made 
a  good  deal  of  money.  In  1750,  he  began  to  interest  himself 
in  typography.  "M.  Baskerville,"  says  Fournier,  "a  private 
individual  of  means,  has  established  at  Birmingham,  the 
town  where  he  lives — renowned  for  its  metal  manufactures 
— a  paper-mill,  printing-office,  and  type-foundry.  He  has 
spared  neither  pains  nor  expense  to  bring  these  to  the  high- 
est perfection.  His  types  are  cut  with  much  spirit,  his  italic 
being  the  best  in  any  foundry  in  England,  though  the  ro- 
man  characters  are  a  little  too  broad.  He  has  already  pub- 
lished some  editions  printed  from  these  new  types,  which, 
for  brilliancy,  are  real  masterpieces.  Some  are  upon  hot- 
pressed  paper,  and  although  they  are  a  little  fatiguing  to  the 
eye,  one  cannot  deny  that  they  are  the  most  beautiful  things 
to  be  seen  in  this  sort  of  work."  ^  What  Caslon  did  for  types, 
Baskerville,  aided  by  the  novel  form  of  his  letters,  his  black 
ink,  and  hot-pressed  rag  paper,  did  for  eighteenth  century 
presswork.  His  way  of  printing  was  so  closely  connected 
with  the  effects  of  his  fonts  that  they  cannot  be  considered 
apart  from  it. 

In  printing  a  book,  Baskerville  had  ready  a  succession 
of  hot  copper  plates,  and  between  such  plates  each  wet 
sheet  was  inserted  as  it  left  the  press — something  no  eigh- 
teenth century  printer  had  up  to  that  time  attempted.  The 
high  finish  of  these  hot-pressed  sheets — the  "gloss"  of  his 
paper — compared  with  that  on  modern  papers,  does  not 
seem  to  us  very  noticeable.  His  contemporaries,  however, 
thought  otherwise,  and  the  Abbe  de  Fontenai,  in  a  notice 
of  Baskerville,  describes  it  as  "so  glossy  and  of  such  a  per- 
fect polish  that  one  would  suppose  the  paper  made  of  silk 
rather  than  of  linen."  It  is  easier  to  understand  his  surprise 

^Manuel  Tyfiografihique ,  Vol.  II,  p.  xxxix. 


FLOWERS. 

Double  Pica  Flowers, 


Great  Primer  Flowers. 


^^^P^^^^^'^J^ 


265.  Ornaments:  William  Caslon  ^  Son's  Specimen 
London^  1763 


S3 


^ii^M""' 


^fi?  3S6''  iSS  M-5i?^  ^JS 
'•^i§^  ^^  J^^^  rai^  ^£^5 


l^k 


Pica  Flowers. 


»iQ«0»0«0<>0«0<>0«0>0«0<><©<>0'><©«<Q<><S><><S><><Q>*><S><^  l§ 


266.  Ornaments:  William  Caslon  ^  Son's  Specimen 
London^  1763 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  109 

at  Baskerville's  restraint  in  the  use  of  decoration,  for  at  that 
date  most  books  did  not  depend  for  their  effect  on  typog- 
raphy, but  chiefly  on  engravings,  or  else  woodcut  ornaments 
or  typographic  flowers.  This  absence  of  plates  in  Basker- 
ville's books  struck  men  of  that  day  very  forcibly.  "Con- 
tent with  the  simplicity  of  typographic  art,"  says  De  Fon- 
tenai,  "the  English  printer  has  had  no  need  to  borrow  aid 
from  engraving ;  nor  do  we  find  in  the  editions  that  he  has 
so  far  published — which  are  admirable  —  plates,  vignettes, 
tail-pieces,  ornamental  letters,  or,  in  short,  any  of  those  ac- 
cessories which  serve  as  passports,  so  to  speak,  for  a  worth- 
less lot  of  French  verse  which,  without  this  useful  precau- 
tion, would  meet  its  just  desert — oblivion."^ 

Baskerville  spent  seven  or  eight  years  in  experimenting 
with  designs  for  type  before  a  page  of  a  book  was  printed, 
and  he  made  not  merely  his  own  types  (cut  for  him  by  a 
certain  John  Handy),  but  also  his  ink,  and  if  he  did  not 
make  his  own  paper,  he  superintended  its  manufacture.  His 
first  book,  the  Latin  Virgil,  which  came  out  in  1757,  estab- 
lished his  reputation.  And  in  1758,  Baskerville  followed  up 
this  success  with  a  Milton  in  two  volumes  royal  octavo — a 
somewhat  indifferent  performance — which  is  chiefly  inter- 
esting for  the  preface  {Jig.  267)  that  he  wrote  for  it. 

"Amongst  the  several  mechanic  Arts  that  have  engaged 
my  attention,"  he  says,  "there  is  no  one  which  I  have 
pursued  with  so  much  steadiness  and  pleasure,  as  that  of 
Letter-Founding.  Having  been  an  early  admirer  of  the 
beauty  of  Letters,  I  became  insensibly  desirous  of  contrib- 
uting to  the  perfection  of  them.  I  formed  to  my  self  Ideas 
of  greater  accuracy  than  had  yet  appeared,  and  have  en- 
deavoured to  produce  a  Sett  of  Types  according  to  what  I 
conceived  to  be  their  true  proportion. 

*De  Fontenai's  Dictionnaire  des  Artistes,  Paris,  1776,  Vol.  I,  p.  156. 


no  PRINTING  TYPES 

"Mr.  Caslon  is  an  Artist,  to  whom  the  Republic  of  Learn- 
ing has  great  obligations;  his  ingenuity  has  left  a  fairer 
copy  for  my  emulation,  than  any  other  master.  In  his  great 
variety  of  Characters  I  intend  not  to  follow  him ;  the  Ro- 
man and  Italic  are  all  I  have  hitherto  attempted ;  if  in  these 
he  has  left  room  for  improvement,  it  is  probably  more  owing 
to  that  variety  which  divided  his  attention,  than  to  any 
other  cause.  I  honor  his  merit,  and  only  wish  to  derive  some 
small  share  of  Reputation,  from  an  Art  which  proves  ac- 
cidentally to  have  been  the  object  of  our  mutual  pursuit. 

"After  having  spent  many  years,  and  not  a  little  of  my 
fortune  in  my  endeavours  to  advance  this  art ;  I  must  own 
it  gives  me  great  Satisfaction,  to  find  that  my  Edition  of 
Virgil  has  been  so  favourably  received.  The  improvement 
in  the  Manufacture  of  the  Paper,  the  Colour,  and  Firmness 
of  the  Ink  were  not  overlooked ;  nor  did  the  accuracy  of 
the  workmanship  in  general,  pass  unregarded.  If  the  judi- 
cious found  some  imperfections  in  the  first  attempt,  I  hope 
the  present  work  will  shew  that  a  proper  use  has  been  made 
of  their  Criticisms :  I  am  conscious  of  this  at  least,  that  I 
received  them  as  I  ever  shall,  with  that  degree  of  deference 
which  every  private  man  owes  to  the  Opinion  of  the  public. 

"It  is  not  my  desire  to  print  many  books;  but  such  only, 
as  are  books  of  Consequence,  of  intrinsic  merit,  or  estab- 
lished Reputation,  and  which  the  public  may  be  pleased 
to  see  in  an  elegant  dress,  and  to  purchase  at  such  a  price, 
as  will  repay  the  extraordinary  care  and  expence  that  must 
necessarily  be  bestowed  upon  them.  Hence  I  was  desirous 
of  making  an  experiment  upon  some  one  of  our  best  Eng- 
lish Authors,  among  those  Milton  appeared  the  most  eli- 
gible." 

Besides  the  fine  and  famous  series  of  classical  and  Eng- 
lish authors  that  Baskerville  continued  to  print  on  his  own 


PREFACE. 


AMONGST  the  feveral  mechanic  Arts 
that  have  engaged  my  attention,  there  is 
no  one  which  I  have  purfued  with  fo  much 
fteadinefs  and  pleafure,  as  that  of  Letter-Found- 
ing. Having  been  an  early  admirer  of  the  beauty 
of  Letters,  I  became  infenfibly  defirous  of  con- 
tributing to  the  perfection  of  them.  I  formed 
to  my  felf  Ideas  of  greater  accuracy  than  had 
yet  appeared,  and  have  endeavoured  to  pro- 
duce a  Sett  of  T^ypes  according  to  what  I  con- 
ceived to  be  their  true  proportion. 

Mr,  Caflon  is  an  Artift,  to  whom  the  Repub- 
lic of  Learning  has  great  obhgations;  his  inge- 
nuity has  left  a  fairer  copy  for  my  emulation, 
than  any  other  mafter.  In  his  great  variety  of 
Charadters  I  intend  not  to  follow  him;  the  Ro- 
man and  Italic  are  all  I  have  hitherto  attempt- 
ed; if  in  thefe  he  has  left  room  for  improve- 
ment, it  is  probably  more  owing  to  that  variety 
which  divided  his  attention,  than  to  any  other 
caufe.  I  honor  his  merit,  and  only  wifh  to 
derive  fome  fmall  fhare  of  Reputation,  from 
an  Art  which  proves  accidentally  to  have  been 
the  objed;  of  our  mutual  purfuit. 

After   having  fpent  many  years,  and  not  a 

A  3  little 

267.  Page  of  Baskerville's  Preface  to  Milton,  Birmingham,  1758 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  111 

account,  he  had  other  irons  in  the  fire.  He  cut  Greek  types 
—  and  very  bad  they  were — for  Oxford.  He  was  appointed 
printer  to  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  produced  edi- 
tions of  the  Bible  and  Prayer  Book  —  some  of  them  most 
imposing — though  his  types  did  not  seem  "sohd"  enough 
for  this  kind  of  Avork.  I  have  chosen  one  or  two  typical 
volumes  for  description  of  his  types  and  type-setting.  The 
first  one  is  the  Virgil,  which  (in  Macaulay's  phrase)  "went 
forth  to  astonish  all  the  librarians  of  Europe." 

This  book  was  issued  in  square  quarto.  The  title-page 
is  set  in  lines  of  widely  spaced  capitals — a  very  charac- 
teristic feature  of  Baskerville's  work.  His  rather  condensed 
italic  capitals  are  employed  for  two  lines  only  {Jig.  268). 
These  italic  capitals  are  used  for  running-titles,  and  else- 
where— the  F,  K,  J,  N,  Q,  Y,  Z  being  peculiarly  "Bas- 
kerville"  in  design.  The  book  is  set  in  great  primer  type, 
leaded.  The  folios  and  numbers  to  lines  of  the  text  employ 
a  very  calligraphic  and  rather  disagreeable  form  of  arabic 
figure.  The  book  is  printed  on  hot-pressed  smooth  paper, 
in  my  copy  partly  wove  and  partly  laid.  Very  easy  to  read, 
the  volume  nevertheless  does  not  seem  to  me  a  particularly 
agreeable  or  beautiful  book,  partly  on  account  of  its  type, 
but  chiefly  because  the  type-page  is  too  large  for  its  paper, 
and  the  headings  and  running-titles,  in  restless  italic  capi- 
tals, become  too  much  of  a  feature  {Jig.  269).  The  volume 
sold  at  a  guinea,  and  among  the  subscribers  was  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  took  six  copies.  Perhaps  among  them  was  the 
copy  given  by  him  to  the  Library  of  Harvard  College,  of 
which  he  MTote  (in  April,  1758)  that  "It  is  thought  to  be 
the  most  curiously  printed  of  any  book  hitherto  done  in  the 
world."  However  that  may  be,  it  is  a  very  typical  example 
of  Baskerville's  merits  and  defects. 

In  The  JForks  of  the  Late  Right  Honorable  Joseph  Addi- 


112  PRINTING  TYPES 

soTi.,  Esq.^  in  four  quarto  volumes,  printed  by  Baskerville 
for  J.  and  R.  Tonson  in  1761,  we  have  a  different  kind  of 
performance.  The  third  volume  I  have  chosen  to  discuss  be- 
cause it  is  de\^oted  to  The  Spectator,  a  book  so  often  reprinted 
that  its  editions  form  a  sort  of  conspectus  of  English  typog- 
raphy for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  To  my  mind,  Bas- 
kerville's  treatment  of  The  Spectator  was  most  unsuccess- 
ful. Running  head-lines  are  set  in  italic  capitals,  much 
spaced,  so  that  "The"  which  precedes  the  word  "Specta- 
tor" has  to  be  huddled  to  one  side  in  upper  and  lower- 
case italic.  The  number  of  the  issue  and  its  date  are  set 
between  two  lines  of  very  light  type-ornament,  which  is 
trivial  and  teasing.  The  text  of  the  work  is  set  in  English 
roman  of  a  monotonous  roundness ;  for  the  height  of  the 
body  of  the  letter  calls  for  more  leading  and  longer  ascend- 
ers and  descenders.  On  pages  432  and  433,  observe  the 
masses  of  italic — gray  in  colour,  feeble  and  wiry  in  line, 
and  annojnngly  condensed  in  shape.  The  occasional  lines 
of  Greek  are  crabbed  and  disagreeable — to  other  Greek 
fonts  what  the  italic  is  to  "suaver"  italics.  The  volumes  may 
be  vastly  superior  in  brilliancy  and  clearness  of  effect  to 
other  books  of  the  time,  but  for  the  text  a  Caslon,  or  even 
"Fell"  letter,  would  have  been  better  if  the  same  attention 
had  been  given  to  press  work. 

A  much  finer  book — a  really  very  fine  book — is  the  Latin 
Juvenal  and  Persius,  printed  the  same  year  ( 1761)  in  quarto. 
This  is  very  simply  arranged.  The  argument  to  each  Satire 
is  set  in  a  large  size  of  Baskerville's  italic,  and  the  text  in 
roman  is  more  leaded  than  in  the  Virgil  and  accordingly 
much  improved.  Running-titles  are  set  in  spaced  italic  capi- 
tals. The  imposition  is  elegant,  the  margins  ample,  the  type 
clear.  And  some  of  Baskerville's  editions  of  the  classics  in 
16mo  are  charming  little  books. 


PUBLII     VIRGILII 


AR  O  N  I S 


BUCOLI  CA, 
GEORGICA, 


E    T 


AE  N  E  I  S. 


BIRMIKGHAMIAE: 

Typis    JOHANNIS     BASKERVILLE. 
MDGGLVII. 

268.  Title-page  of  Baskerozlle'' s  Firgil  {reduced) 


83       ME.  Hac  te  nos  fragili  donabimus  ante  cicuta. 
Haec  nos,  Formofum  Corydon  ardebat  Alexin: 
Haec  eadem  docuit,  Cujum  pecus?  an  Meliboei? 

MO,  At  tu  fume  pedum,  quod,  me  quum  faepe  rogaret, 
Non  tulit  Antigenes,  (et  erat  tum  dignus  amari] 

go  Formofum  paribus  nodis  atque  aere,  Menalca. 

E    C    L    0    G   A      S    E    X    r  A. 


S     I     L     E     N     U     S. 


PR  IMA  Syracofio  dignata  eft  ludere  verfu, 
Noftra  nee  erubuit  lilvas  habitare  Thalia. 
Quum  canerem  reges  et  praelia,  Cynthius  aurem 
Vellit,  et  admonuit:  paftorem,  Tityre,  pingues 

269.  Raskerville's  Type  used  in  Virgil^  Birmingham^  1757 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  113 

Baskerville's  specimen-sheet  of  about  1762,^  entitled  A 
Specimen  by  John  Baskerville  of  Birmingham^  Letter- Founder 
and  Printer^  shows  eight  varieties  of  roman  —  from  double 
pica  to  brevier — and  six  sizes  of  italic.  On  this  specimen 
the  roman  types  appear  better  than  in  the  Addison.  But  as 
Latin  is  employed  for  the  paragraph  vi^hich  displays  them, 
this  may  be  due  to  the  many  m's,  n's,  and  u's  which 
Latin  affords.  The  italic  is  better,  though  it  is  a  very  thin, 
starved  sort  of  character.  The  italic  capital  K's,  and  capi- 
tal Q's  and  Z's,  both  in  roman  and  italic,  are  interesting 
{Jig.  270).  As  our  illustration  of  the  broadside  specimen  is 
reduced,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  reproduction  of  Bas- 
kerville's  double  pica  roman  and  italic  (a  portion  of  another 
broadside  specimen  issued  about  the  same  time),  which 
gives  a  somewhat  more  accurate  idea  of  his  type-design 
{fig-  271). 

Baskerville  no  doubt  was  eccentric,  vain,  and  unattrac- 
tive as  a  man;  but  publishers  and  printers  were  jealous  of 
him  as  a  printer.  They  abused  his  type,  they  poked  fun  at 
his  smooth  paper,  and  in  spite  of  his  artistic  success,  finan- 
cially he  found  it  by  no  means  easy  sailing.  Franklin,  who 
loved  a  practical  joke,  in  a  letter  written  to  Baskerville  in 
1760,  tells  him  that  hearing  a  friend  say  that  Baskerville's 
types  would  be  "the  means  of  blinding  all  the  Readers  in 
the  Nation  owing  to  the  thin  and  narrow  strokes  of  the  let- 
ters," he  produced  a  specimen  of  Caslon's  types  with  Cas- 
lon's  name  torn  from  it,  saying  it  was  Baskerville's,  and  ask- 
ing for  specific  criticism.  He  was  at  once  favoured  with  a 
long  discourse  on  faults  so  plainly  apparent  in  the  type  that 

*  This  sheet  is  a  rare  one.  My  copy  formerly  belonged  to  A.  A.  Renouard,  the 
French  publisher  and  bibliophile.  There  is  also  an  example  in  the  Birming- 
ham Free  Libraries.  Baskerville  issued  specimens  in  1757,  c.  1762  (2,  one  of 
which  is  bordered),  and  in  1775  (2). 


114  PRINTING  TYPES 

before  the  critic  had  finished,  he  complained  that  his  eyes 
were  even  then  suffering  from  "Baskerville"  pains  !^ 

But  Baskerville  was  tenacious,  and  persisted  in  printing 
and  publishing,  though  his  books  did  not  pay.  Several  times 
during  his  latter  years  he  tried  to  sell  his  types, — to  the 
Imprimerie  Royale  (through  Franklin  in  1767),  to  the  Aca- 
demic des  Sciences  at  Paris,  to  the  Court  of  Russia,  to 
Denmark,  to  the  English  Government,  —  without  success  ; 
indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  he  wished  to  succeed.  For  a  time 
he  placed  his  establishment  in  the  hands  of  his  foreman, 
Robert  Martin,  but  later  resumed  its  charge,  and  continued 
to  print  and  to  publish  until  his  death  in  1775.  After  Bas- 
kerville's  decease,  his  types  were  hawked  about;  some  of 
them  were  sold  in  England,  and  the  remainder  bought  by 
Beaumarchais  for  his  great  edition  of  Voltaire.  The  chief 
part  of  his  equipment,  therefore,  went  to  France.  In  the  up- 
heaval consequent  to  the  Revolution  the  history  of  his  types 
becomes  obscure.  An  ad vertisementof  their  sale  in  Paris,  cer- 
tainly after  1789,  is  reproduced  from  the  only  copy  known 
{Jig.  272).  Later,  Baskerville's  fonts  were  used  to  print 
the  Gazette  Nationale^  on  Le  Moniteur  Universel,  the  official 
journal  of  the  French  Republic  during  "the  terrible  years." 
Whittingham,  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  used  some 
of  them."  And  of  late  his  fonts  have  turned  up  in  certain 
French  foundries  and  printing-houses."^  Baskerville's  types 
and  matrices,  which  should  have  been  preserved  to  English 
typography,  through  indiiference  were  lost  to  it. 

^  Franklin's  amusing  letter,  which  has  been  so  often  quoted,  may  be  found  in 
Straus  and  Dent's  John  Baskerville,  Cambridge,  1907,  p.  19. 
°  In  1827,  Pickering  published  T/ie  Treatyse  of  Fysshynge  wyth  an  Angle 
(attributed  to  Dame  Juliana  Bemers) ,  printed  with  the  types  of  John  Bas- 
kerville. 

^  See  notice  of  BaskervUle  type  in  Marius  Audin's  Le  Livre,  sa  Technique, 
son  Architecture,  Lyon,  1921,  pp.  42  et  seq. 


<!P5UQWtaOEr-> 


T  A 


^ 
^ 
^ 

^ 


^ 

^ 


CO 


I-H 


J^    o 


p:i 


^ 
^ 


Ox 


"^      V;^ 

q  ^ 


(O  JS  ^^  ^ 

.      Si  ^ 

•^  "^  .;2  ^ 

^  i2  §  I 

.^    <^  s  s 

S  ^  S 

^  ^  ^ 

►S    ^  ^  53 


§  (^ 


•■^s^ 


S  i^ 


Sq 


I     I  * 

^'S  ^  o 


o 


9    ^   ^   G   =2   S   !^ 

S       ^'      ^  K^ 


C  5  g  Q 


05 


oj 


o 


^   s  "-^  a   ^   o   Oi' 


p   <-, 


O 


«  .ta^ 


15 

^     ^     ?^ 

■^  ^^  5^  1^^ 


«    "^    H 

^      ,    <^    ~    S 


q  S 


g    f3    S    u 

C    e    h:    4^ 


^      i-t       CA       i-J 


^   '^     CO 


Pi    o-.S  p  o 

.   .      !J=1      U      ?♦      ^ 


o-.S  c  o 

•— '      O      *-•     -^-i 


3     > 


%  2U^  O 
>  ^  « 

3    Qj    ,, 


<^  :3    CQ 


^  -S    5  X     S  5  (3 

^  o    S  "^    bo  S  -is 

3  55     S  .,  -§  K  .^ 

^  ,  'C  -"S     O  S  ^ 

s  «  -^    .  Sj  ."S   S 

^^"^ 

S  ."«   s 
S    s-    X 

\2         - 

<3    ^    S 

"^  -  -  -^  S  b  .s 

:;  ^     >^     «.     ~     r;     • 

Of'^  g,  *    ^    ^ 


^^   ^  "2- 

5     ^      g      ?o    •.-, 


'o 


S.S 


•S,.«  '. 


bo  « 


~  -s  .^  i  ~^ 


Q    S>    <^>    - 


S<  - 1  I 

IS     C     i->  ^ 

^•g  §  >  a 
^  S  c 

i:  -Qj  rt  s  £ 

3  ■;::  •-  jj  .2. 

■"  <i2  •=  c  rt 


ri  ._ 


ri 


"a 
Si   «j   c 


.a  iy 

-a  -r   cr  bo  ^ 

s  t3   r:   'ij  .t^ 

c«    rt    5    ^  c- 

U   &h|   I  g 

-  <=:  «  •"  t3 

<«    aj  cs  ^^  rt 

.S  f^  a  >  ^ 

-73  t;  id  a 

a  -a  3  o  ^'• 

'c5  —    .>    :2  ^ 


_a 

'(U 

,Q 

c/> 

t— i 

p 

3 

*'"' 

';? 

c« 

-a 

-Q 

a 

'rj 

3 

B 

c: 

a 

3 

0 

S 

|Sd 

'Tj 

0 

5^ 

u* 

n 

y 

'""'^ 

c: 

<U 

3 

5'< 


=  £  g 
4-.   u   i5 


^-§1-5  3 


a  -p  ° 


i  - 

^«  a 

o 


<:  pq  O  Q  W  tM  o 


z   o 


^    h    D    > 


II  "ill 2.- 


^  5  i;  c  ^  =>  s 

"2    K  -c,  a    ^    K 

I   I  S  I  ;f  •-  I  I  I 


to.: 


§   -  ^  "S  fc 


illi' 


ft, 
o 


0''J 


£  S  S' 


'C  -'  §  i  g  -S-c  »; 

■  K    3  ^  a    E    „ 


^   C  .^ 


5  ~    C    =    «  ^ 

c^   '^    ^"  -^  "^     K     '^ . 


o  "I"  S  i  i  S 


o   B 


"   *-    O    t    J.I 


3    C 

G  S  2  S  '^•f  o  ;|  e 


.  g  6  S  .= 
i  I 

6TS 


>ScS  H  5-5. 

S  2-:5  £  S  ■;  5  6 


2  f- 


O? 


S  o  3=  :5  ■?  J  S  i,>-9 

O    S    S    £  ^   X'—-  c.  0    n 
•c  -J  J    ~  =    g_==    ^i_^  S 

S  c  „-  c,.  E  =  -  vi  .S  o- 
QrE.a,3SS2'5 

ZSgncS°EJ2 


rs  c.;^.S  s 


rt    >  "  \^ 

C   ii  >  ^ 

r>      C  (U 

i-    ^-.  I-      — 

'^  s 


O    2  V; 

§<   S 
B  C  c 


c  tu  -p  q 


c  T-  -F^  r^  c 


5  .'!i  S  ^  S 

"3  s  a  a 

<^    c    r*    > 


w 

3 

^  a  > 

|.2. 

Q 

13 

-  s 

'2  2 

8 

:z: 

ra 

"  ie 

a  a 

< 

e  Iiu 
vel 
exce 

.2  g 

«4 

_bC  3 

-^ 

2      vT 

o  a 

^ 

o-  ;3  .S 

rt  a  !5 

:-i    u 

c-o 

> 

P 

H 

C/5 

_  o^ 

^  O 

i2  ^: 

o 

« 
Q 
U 


G  rt  a 

.  b  o 

Oh--" 


S    i;    S 


^    CL,  «    ^3    C 
13  .2-  e   «   >   „- 


2    3  — 


S 


s!-i 


•  L=    C  -O 


^    3    w      -    >-    ^  .. 

I  '^  s  g-s  a  < 

iiE-  -  «  ^ 
g  -§  -3  „-  b  -^ 

a  -  <.-  g  ■• 
5  e  3  £.^;5-?^ 

e    U'O    ^^^T3^ 

o      .  c  't;  c  ';^  ■—  " 

3  j_2  ^  J3  s  ^  <— 
H  g  5  ".2.S,2 

^i    J.-  I    O    p   - 

T3    ' — '  ^  ■-;    ,,    ^    ^ 
C    C    C    3    i' 
«    S    rt    d    " 


Co 


cC  -H 


N 
>- 
X 

o  ^  f^ 
II    V 

Sp  o 

4J   ^      fc-l 
3     U      »^ 

C    3       , 


.-;    3    o    C, 

rc—  2 


cr-s   c  3  n   S   s 

^  S  Sis"  ^£ 

'-'-i;    rt    „    C  j::    c 

"i  c  p  H  a  3  = 

p    <U  .S      .  .3  I 

5   ^-   u   t-t   o 
u   u  s  z:   >  . 


t:  S 


E  S.G 

""no 

^  2  c 

..    m    o 


•3  t;         ,  3 

uo-e:3-s§;§g,= 


-1    o 


»-S 


c  c 


cu  cr 


'"  t2  1-1 


= -3  o 


3   2 


.2-1  r-s  ^  £  ^  •=  - 

«^£Eeo3i;"33 
Q-S=  g  o  c   S  3ci 


1 1  e-|<  S- 

L  .2  S  u-  H  ^ 


E  5  ^  .S-  c 


3  J3 


F,  c 


^00^30 
C     3     I.     C  -3     G. 

||3:l>|s 
^  e  >  2  e 
.2  =3  s  5--S  o 
jii  ^  ij  2  ■-<  c 


Ji  S 


CO 

e  ^  s  3  3  -^ 

pi 

i;  j3    Mrs    ^^ 
c   t:  "^  o  J  e' 

cu 

mfurc 
huici 
iplum 

unum 
ilia  vc 

O 

s' 

C     3  —     "     P     " 

Z 

e 

l^:-il1 

> 

H 


0-2  ^ 

Isl 

C  c»  3 

3  E   "^ 


iFJ  If 

O* o  s  =  <  - 

"H  -i:  ■?,  e-  5  e 


o 


-is 


.-  2  .a,'H  ^-5  o 


.5  o  3 


O  —     " 

:  .2  -u  ^ 


O^cr;  c/D  H  t::::)  > 


Double  Pica  Roman. 

TANDEM aliquando,  Quiri- 
tes!  L.Catilinam  furentem 
audacia,  fcelus  anhelantem,  pe- 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMN. 

Great  Primer  Roman, 

TANDEM  aliquando,  Quirites !  L. 
Catilinam  furentem  audacia,  fcelus 
anhelantem,  peftem  patriae  nefarie  moli- 
entem,  vobis  atque  huic  urbi  ferrum flam- 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP. 

Double  Pica  Italic. 

r  AN  DEM  aliquando, Quirites  I L. 
Catilinamfurentem  audaciajcelus 
anhelantem,  pejlem  patriae  nefarie  moli- 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMX. 

Great  Primer  Italic. 

rAXDEM  aliquando,  Qiiiritesl  L,  Ca- 
tilinam furentem  audacia,  fcelus  anhe- 
lantem, peflem  patrice  nefarie  molientem,  vobis 
atque  huic  urbi  ferrum  flammamque  minitan- 
AB  CDEFGHIJKLMJSrOPtlR. 

271.  Types  from  Baskei'Ville's  bordered  Broadside  Specimen 
Birmingham^  c.  1762 


d£p6t 

DES    CARACTfeRES 

BASKERVILLE, 

PORTE  SAINT-ANTOINE,  entre  la  rue  Amelot 
et  le  Boulevard,  N°  i ,  vis-a-vis  les  ruines  de  la  Baflille. 


iiK? 


m 

m 


i 

m 


i_iE  Depot  de  la  Fonderie  de  Baskerville,  qui  presentc  aux  Imprimeurs  une  ressource 
nouvelle  en  ce  ^enre,  contient  les  Caracteres  ci-apres  denommes: 


Triple  Canon. 
Double  Canon. 
Gros  Canon. 
Petit  Canon. 
Paleftine. 


S  A    V  0    I   R, 

Gros  Parangon. 
Gros  Roniain. 
Saint-Augustin. 
Cicero  gros  ceil. 
Cicero  petit  ceil. 


Petit  Romain  gros  ceil. 
Petit  Romain  petit  oeil. 
Petit  Texte. 
Mignone. 
Nompareille. 


Ces  Caracteres,  fondus  sur  la  meme  hauteur,  ne  laissent  rien  a  desirer  pour  la  perfection 
de  rexecution,  et  Ton  n'a  de  memc  rien  cpargne  pour  la  bonte  de  la  matiere,  objetdans 
lequel  les  Connaisseurs  trouveront  un  avantage  qui  ne  leur  echappera  pas. 

Ce  Depot  ofFre  aux  Citoyens- Imprimeurs  et  Amateurs  en  typographic,  la  facilite  de 
se  pourvoir  sur  le  champ  de  tout  ce  dont  ils  peuvent  avoir  besom,  tant  en  Fontes  quen 
Assortimens  de  toute  espece. 

Le  Directeur  du  Depot  pent  livrer  sur  le  champ  de  quoi  monter  une  Imprimerie 
de  3o  Presses,  en  Fontes  les  plus  amples,  fussent-elles  chacune  de  25  a  3o  feuilles,  depuis 
le  Gros  Romain  jusqu'a  la  Mignone  inclusivement. 

Cette  Affiche,  exccutee  avec  les  Caracteres  de  Baskerville,  indique  aux  uns  et  aux 
autres  ce  qu'ils  peuvent  se  procurer  pour  tons  les  ouvrages  de  ce  genre. 

Les  Amateurs  peuvent  se  procurer  de  ces  Caracteres  assortis  en  aussi  petite  quantite  qu'ils  le 
voudront,  ainsi  que  tous  les  Assortimens,  Ornemens,  et  en  general  tous  Ustensiles  d'Imprimerie. 

On  distribiiera  un  Essai  d'Epreuves  desdits  Caracteres,  avec  Icurs  piix.  en  attendant  le  Sjiccwiai  ou  Lime  dfycuves 
de  lout  ce  que  contient  la  Fonderie  de  Basuerville,  a  la  confection  duqucl  on  travaille. 

S'adresser  au  Citoyen  COLAS,  Dcposilaire  desdits  CaiacUrcs,  aii  Dcjiul  ci-dessns ;  ou  a  sa  demcure, 
Tue  Sainl-Anloine ,  pres  la  Place  de  la  Liberie ,  Porte  cochcre  N°   161. 


mi 


m 


272.  Advertisement  of  Sale  of  Baskerville'' s  Types ^  Paris ^  after  1789  {reduced) 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  115 

The  only  ornaments  Baskerville  possessed  were,  appar- 
ently, fourteen  forms  of  "flowers,"  which,  rather  thin  in  de- 
sign, accorded  very  well  with  his  types  {Jigs.  273  «;7c/274). 
But  he  seldom  used  them,  and  his  best  books  have  no  orna- 
ments at  all. 

As  we  look  at  Baskerville's  specimen-sheets,  the  fonts  ap- 
pear very  perfect,  and  yet  somehow  they  have  none  of  the 
homely  charm  of  Caslon's  letter.  It  is  true  that  the  types  try 
the  eye.  Baskerville's  contemporaries,  who  also  thought  so, 
attributed  this  to  his  glossy  paper  and  dense  black  ink. 
Was  this  the  real  fault?  The  difficulty  was,  I  fancy,  that  in 
his  type-designs  the  hand  of  the  writing-master  betrayed 
itself,  in  making  them  too  even,  too  perfect,  too  "genteel," 
and  so  they  charmed  too  apparently  and  artfully — with 
a  kind  of  finical,  sterile  refinement.  The  excellent  Johann 
Gottlob  Immanuel  Breitkopf  remarked  that  these  types  re- 
sembled copper-plate  engraving;  and  the  Leipsic  gentle- 
man was  partly  right. 

Nor  was  Baskerville's  type-setting  as  original  as  is  nowa- 
days supposed.  Tonson  had  printed  title-pages  without  ru- 
brication  or  surrounding  rules  many  years  before,  and  he 
and  William  Bowyer,^  too,  had  used  spaced  roman  and  italic 
capitals  in  what  we  consider  Baskerville's  peculiar  manner. 
Hanmer's  edition  of  Shakespeare,  which  antedated  Basker- 
ville's first  book,  shows  a  method  of  employing  "flowers"  to 
which  Baskerville  was  singularly  addicted ;  and  he  was  no 
doubt  greatly  influenced  by  the  Foulis  editions  in  the  open- 
ness of  his  title-pages. 

The  more  we  think  of  Baskerville,  the  more  he  appears  to 
be  an  eclectic,  whose  types  were  the  result  of  fashions  in 
calligraphy  and  whose  presswork  was  an  attempt  to  emu- 
late on  paper  the  finish  of  japanning.  He  put  his  books  to- 

*  As  in  Bowyer's  edition  of  Pope's  Works,  printed  for  Lintot  in  1717. 


116  PRINTING  TYPES 

gether  ingeniously;  but  they  were  in  the  nature  of  a  pas- 
tiche^ and  not  a  simple,  healthy  growth  —  or  so  it  seems  to 
me.  Thus  his  editions,  however  ambitious,  are  not  quite  the 
"real  thing."  If  in  most  English  printing  of  Baskerville's 
day,  the  presswork  had  not  been  strong  and  masculine, 
and  much  of  the  paper  so  rough  in  texture,  perhaps  the 
note  of  delicacy  in  his  work  would  not  have  given  it  the 
reputation  it  enjoyed.  Nevertheless,  Baskerville  was  a  great 
printer,  because  he  had  something  individual  to  say — even 
though  he  perhaps  "quoted"  his  more  ornamental  phrases 
— and  he  had  the  courage  to  say  it,  and  say  it  persistently, 
and  so  he  made  himself  heard.  He  was  not  among  the  world's 
greatest  printers,  because  what  he  had  to  say  was  not  in 
itself  great.  When  we  look  at  his  books  we  think  of  Bas- 
kerville ;  while  to  look  at  the  work  of  Jenson  is  to  think  but 
of  its  beauty,  and  almost  to  forget  that  it  was  made  with 
hands ! 

IV 

THERE  is  no  denying  that  Baskerville  had  great  in- 
fluence on  English  type-forms.  To  know  hoxv  much  he 
had,  look  at  the  specimen-sheets  of  Wilson  of  Glasgow, 
of  Moore  and  the  Frys  of  Bristol  and  London,  and  indeed 
of  the  later  Caslons,  and  see  how  his  types  were  imitated. 
Types  somewhat  like  these  Baskerville  types  still  exist,  a 
letter  transitional  between  the  early  Caslon  fonts  and  those 
of  the  later  period  of  Wilson ;  and  some  of  them  are  better 
than  Baskerville's  and  more  useful  for  modern  work  than 
the  more  irregular  types  of  Caslon. 

Wilson  and  Fry  are  important  names  in  English  type- 
founding.  Alexander  Wilson,  a  Scotchman,  born  in  1714, 
was  educated  as  a  physician.  A  chance  visit  to  a  type- 
foundry  interested  him  so  much  that,  with  a  friend  named 


^ 

A) 

# 

#                IW 

> 

#         J, 

?    . 

<^ 

^         I) 

^         1 
#         1 

•^         1 

ri 

-5^ 

1 

1 

IT*                             y 

1        -"^i 

%         9 

4        -^H 

1 

>i»^ 

5^                    I 

1         -^^ 

<f 

s 

# 

^^ 

•^^ 

1 

Jt^K 

#              7/             -^>^ 

•5f 

0 

11 

#       r 

fi         -^^ 

^^ 

X'.X 

^ 

-^ 

•^^ 

CO 

5^      > 
#        r 

1        "^ 

4 

(?< 

^in 
>I*i< 

^ 

<f 

#          I 

A 

<sj             f 

i 

^^ 

I*^ 

IJ 

^i^ 

•^                 9^ 

j^ 

^?^ 

^•i« 

^     1 

1 

u 
n 
« 

K 
K 
K 

« 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 

K 

S 

n 
u 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 
n 

K 

n 
n 
u 


© 

:^ 

j3? 

?i 

5^ 

C^ 

«0 

^« 

«5 

s^ 

a^, 

is^ 

~c> 

.«t 

•^ 

© 

^ 

i:<5t 

s 

ia« 

^ 

:>> 

s 

I^J 

@ 

S 

•^ 

Q 

iSi 

5 

:pj 

o 

!^ 

. 

I^ 

S 

iS} 

(N 

:^ 

ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  117 

Baine,  he  attempted  an  improved  system  of  type-casting. 
This  coming  to  nothing,  they  set  up  on  a  small  scale  a  type- 
foundry  at  St.  Andrews  in  1742.  Baine  later  left  Wilson  to 
go  into  business  for  himself;  and  Wilson  (who  had  mean- 
while removed  his  foundry  to  Camlachie)  fell  in  with  the 
famous  brothers  Foulis  —  Robert  and  Andrew  —  printers 
to  the  University  of  Glasgow.  For  them  he  cut  some  cele- 
brated Greek  types  which  they  used  in  their  Homer.  The 
foundry  was  removed  to  Glasgow,  and  Wilson  accepting  a 
post  as  professor  of  astronomy  in  the  University,  its  man- 
agement fell  to  his  sons.  Their  earliest  specimen  was  dated 
1772.  A  specimen  in  broadside  form  came  out  in  1783  and 
illustrated  an  article  on  printing  in  Chambers'  Cyclopaedia. 
It  shows  a  selection  only  of  Wilson's  types,  but  exhibits 
fonts  of  roman  and  italic  from  six-line  pica  to  pearl,  and  five 
sizes  of  black-letter.  Of  Greek  types  there  are  five  sizes  (the 
double  pica  being  that  of  the  Homer),  and  there  are  six  sizes 
of  Hebrew.  All  these  fonts  (with  the  exception  of  the  tAvo 
larger  "blacks")  have  been  made  more  regular  and  me- 
chanical than  Caslon's  types,  and,  especially  in  mass,  lack 
their  colour  {Jig.  275).  If  we  compare  Wilson's  specimen 
of  1783  with  Caslon's  specimen  of  1763,  it  is  surprising 
to  see  how  "rude"  the  Caslon  letters  appear.  On  the  other 
hand,  Wilson's  types  are  not  Baskerville's  characters,  for 
these  were  shorter  and  broader,  and  the  italic  much  more 
like  pen-work.  Wilson's  fonts  clearly  show  the  Baskerville 
influence,  and  yet  somehow  quite  miss  Baskerville's  bril- 
liancy. The  monotonous  grayness  of  the  letter  in  pages,  not 
disagreeably  noticeable  in  large  types,  becomes  marked  as 
sizes  decrease.  It  is  particularly  apparent  in  the  fonts  below 
pica,  in  the  Specimen  of  Printing  Types  issued  by  Wilson 
at  Glasgow  in  1786  —  which  shows  Wilson's  merits  and 
defects  better  than  the  broadside  just  mentioned. 


118  PRINTING  TYPES 

Wilson's  types,  as  I  have  said,  were  almost  entirely  used 
by  the  brothers  Foulis.  Their  smsiWev  Jbr?nats  were  cheaper, 
more  popular,  and  better  known  than  their  folios,  and  in 
them  they  popularized  invertebrate  sorts  of  fonts  which 
were  lifeless  and  dull  in  effect ;  and  the  reputation  which 
they  had  made  through  the  types  of  the  folios  cloaked  the 
sins  of  the  12mos!  Printers  who  did  not  use  these  types 
printed  books  that  had  the  same  faults — volumes  like  Dr. 
Charles  Burney's  History  of  Music,  in  four  quarto  volumes 
(London,  1776-79),  or  the  first  edition  of  White's  Natural 
History  of  Selhome,  printed  by  Bensley  in  1789  in  quarto; 
and  other  similarly  "drab"  performances.  For  some  reason 
or  other  such  books  were  often  printed  on  a  bluish-white 
paper,  in  an  ink  brown,  rather  than  black.  I  fear  we  must 
count  Foulis  and  Wilson  as  poor  influences  on  contempo- 
rary English  printing. 

The  owners  of  the  Fry  type-foundry  at  Bristol  were  in- 
telligent, painstaking  men,  and  its  output  stood  very  high 
in  its  day.  Joseph  Fry  and  William  Pine,  a  Bristol  printer, 
started  the  establishment  in  1764,  under  the  style  of  Fry  & 
Pine.  Fry — a  typographic  Vicar  of  Bray — was  much  in- 
fluenced by  other  people's  work;  and  at  first,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Isaac  Moore,  a  type-founder  who  was  made  part- 
ner, this  foundry  produced  letters  modelled  on  Baskerville's. 
The  very  rare  specimen-sheet  of  Isaac  Moore  &  Co.,  Bris- 
tol, shows  their  output  in  1766  {^fig.  276).  But  there  was  a 
prejudice  against  Baskerville's  types,  and,  Moore  having 
retired  about  1776,  the  firm — J.  Fry  &  Co. — put  aside  their 
imitations  of  Baskerville  and  spent  some  years  in  imitating 
Caslon.  They  were  able  but  bare-faced  copyists,  and  openly 
announced  in  the  advertisement  to  their  specimen  of  1785 
that  they  had  cut  types  "which  will  mix  with  and  be  totally 
unknown  from  the  most  approved  Founts  made  by  the  late 


Two  Lines  Great  Primer. 

Quoufque  tand- 
em abutere,  Cati- 
lina,  patientia  no- 

ABCDEFGI 

Italick, 

§luoufque  tandem  a- 
butere,  Catilina,  pa- 
tientia nojlra  ?  quam- 

Two  Lines  English. 

Quoufque  tandem  a- 
butere,  Catilina,  pati- 
entia  noftra?    quam- 

ABCDEFGHI 

Italick. 

^oiifque  tandem  abutere^ 
Catilina^  patientia  nojlra? 

275.  Portion  of  Wilson's  Broadside  Specimen^  Glasgoxv.,  1783 


s  ^  «  H  ^  .^  r^ 

>s  s  g  s  s  ^ 
•^  «  s  3  g 


O 

O  O  .J?i,  O 

J  o  ^  d  S-^  d  fs  d  i^ 
J  Z  (>2:  ^E  fete 
^      ^     ^     g^     i|^ 

"■<      ^^     ^     g^     IC 


1  5  H 
•  o 

;*  c  .3 


,  c    =    ^ 


3    3 


H.2 
rs  5 
•SPE 


3  0-. 


'"  '5  « 


,  g  S  ». 
•7-  a.  2 


-=  o 

._     u 

?  « 

'-   3 


o-.g 

C  n..    o 

3  -^3. 

•^    "    3 

E-S  » 

3    C'C 


£  IS  ^ 
=  ^  =  ■£  c  ^  C 

™  ~  1  ■;=  2  3  0  ^  «-  0  O 

^  '5  ^  --5  °  ±  2  .2, 2  •=  1=^ 

°  .2  5  -S  o  s  §  t  E  ■:=  °=i 

C^  (i  O.J1   u  c   c  o.-=  < 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  119 

ingenious  artist,  William  Caslon" — which  vexed  the  Cas- 
lons  exceedingly.  How  much  it  vexed  them  may  be  seen  in 
the  Address  to  the  Public  prefixed  to  the  Caslon  specimen 
of  1785: 

"The  acknowledged  Excellence  of  this  Foundry,"  says 
the  Address,  "with  its  rapid  Success,  as  well  as  its  unexam- 
pled Productions,  having  gained  universal  Encomiums,  on 
its  ingenious  Improver  and  Perfecter,  (whose  uncommon 
Genius  transferred  the  Letter-Foundry  Business  from  Hol- 
land to  England,  which,  for  above  Sixty  Years,  has  received, 
for  its  Beauty  and  Symmetry,  the  unbounded  Praises  of  the 
Literati,  and  the  liberal  Encouragement  of  all  the  Master- 
printers  and  Booksellers,  not  only  of  this  Country,  but  of  all 
Europe  and  America,)  has  excited  the  Jealousy  of  the  En- 
vious, and  the  Desires  of  the  Enterprising,  to  become  Par- 
takers of  the  Reward  due  to  the  Descendants  of  the  Im- 
prover of  this  most  useful  and  important  Art.  They  endea- 
vour by  every  Method  to  withdraw,  from  this  Foundry,  that 
which  they  silently  acknowledge  is  its  indisputable  Right : 
Which  is  conspicuous  by  their  very  Address  to  the  Public, 
wherein  they  promise  (in  Order  to  induce  Attention  and  En- 
couragement) that  they  will  use  their  utmost  Endeavours 
to  IMITATE  the  Productions  of  this  Foundry:  Which  Asser- 
tion, on  Inspection,  will  be  found  to  be  impracticable,  as  the 
Imperfections  cannot  correspond  in  Size.  The  Proprietor  of 
this  Foundry,  ever  desirous  of  retaining  the  decisive  Su- 
periority in  his  Favour,  and  full  of  the  sincerest  Gratitude 
for  the  distinguished  Honour,  by  every  Work  of  Reputa- 
tion being  printed  from  the  elegant  Types  of  the  Chiswell- 
street  Manufactory,  hopes,  by  every  Improvement,  to  retain 
and  merit  a  Continuance  of  their  established  Approbation, 
which,  in  all  Quarters  of  the  Globe,  has  given  it  so  acknow- 
ledged an  Ascendency  over  that  of  his  Opponents." 


120  PRINTING  TYPES 

A  Specimen  of  Printing  Types^  by  Kdmund  Fry  and  Co., 
Letter-Founders  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  appeared  in  1787, 
and  was  reprinted  in  Stower's  abridged  edition  of  Smith's 
Printers  Grammar,  which  was  issued  in  that  year.  This 
shows  the  Frys'  imitations  of  Caslon's  types,  and  Stower's 
note  introductory  to  the  specimen  says  :  "  The  plan  on  which 
they  first  sat  out,  \a  as  an  improvement  of  the  Types  of  the 
late  Mr.  Baskerville  of  Birmingham,  eminent  for  his  in- 
genuity in  this  line,  as  also  for  his  curious  Printing,  many 
proofs  of  which  are  extant,  and  much  admired:  But  the 
shape  of  Mr.  Caslon's  Type  has  since  been  copied  by  them 
with  such  accuracy  as  not  to  be  distinguished  from  those 
of  that  celebrated  Founder."  (!)  Some  of  the  Frys'  type  cer- 
tainly closely  resembled  Caslon's;  but,  in  the  main,  their 
types  were  more  open  and  finished  than  even  Wilson's — or 
at  least  became  so.  As  might  be  expected  from  so  "learned" 
a  foundry — for  the  proprietors  were  learned — they  had  a 
large  selection  of  Hebrew  types  and  some  interesting  forms 
of  Persian,  Arabic,  Ethiopic,etc.,  the  result  of  judicious  pur- 
chases at  the  sale  of  the  James  foundry  in  1782  —  in  which 
year  Edmund  and  Henry  Fry  were  admitted  to  the  busi- 
ness. The  "flowers"  in  this  book  are  of  a  rather  lighter  char- 
acter than  those  in  Caslon's  specimens  —  lightened  to  har- 
monize with  the  type. 

In  1787,  Joseph  Fry  retired.  He  left  the  business  in  the 
hands  of  his  sons.  Edmund  Fry,  a  scholarly  man,  was  the 
author  of  Pantographia,  a  book  on  which  he  spent  some  six- 
teen years  of  research.  It  shows  more  than  two  hundred  al- 
phabets— thirty-nine  of  Greek  alone.  In  1794,  Dr.  Fry  took 
Isaac  Steele  into  partnership.  Their  specimen  of  1 795  ^  shows 
that,  in  view  of  the  prevailing  fashions,  types  of  the  Bas- 

*  A  Sfiecimen  of  Printing  Ti/fies  by  Fry  and  Steele,  Letter  Founders  to  the 
F^ince  of  Wales,  Tyfie  Street,  London.  Printed  by  T.  Rickaby,  1795. 


Two  Lines  English. 

Quoufque  tandem  abu- 
tere  Catilina,  patientia 
noftra?  quamdiu  nos  e- 

ABCDEFGHIJKL 

Quoufque  tandem  abutere^ 
Catilina^  patientia  nojlra? 
quamdiu    nos    etiam  furor 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN 

Two  Lines  Pica. 

Quoufque  tandem  abutere, 
Catilma,  patientia  noftra  ? 
quamdiu    nos    etiam   furor 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN 

Quoufque  tandem  abutere^  Ca- 
tilina^ patientia  nojira?  quam 
diu  nos  etiam  furor  ijie  tuus  e 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN 

277.  Roman  and  Italic:  Fry  and  Steele's  Specimen.,  London.,  1795 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  121 

kerville  style  were  again  resuscitated  {Jigs.  277  and  278). 
A  comparison  between  the  broadside  specimen  of  1785,  the 
specimen-book  of  1787,  and  that  of  1795,  shows  these  puz- 
zling see-saws  of  taste,  with  the  last  of  which,  undoubtedly, 
Didot  and  Bodoni  abroad,  and  Bulmer  and  Martin  at  home, 
had  something  to  do.  Fry's  Type  Street  Letter  Foundry,  as 
it  was  called,  was  ultimately  acquired  by  the  proprietors  of 
the  Fann  Street  Foundry,  represented  in  our  own  day  by 
Stephenson,  Blake  &  Company. 

Finally,  the  Caslons  themselves  became  involved  in  the 
new  movement,  and  in  a  specimen  published  in  1798^  many 
of  their  types  and  ornaments  are  distinctly  of  the  school 
of  Wilson  and  Fry  [fgs.  279  and  280).  Thus  the  taste  for 
lighter  book-printing  was  carrying  all  before  it  by  1800. 

Joseph  Jackson  (1733-1792),  who  has  been  mentioned 
as  apprentice  to  the  first  Caslon,  and  who  was,  later,  a  rival 
of  William  Caslon  II,  is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  clever 
cutting  of  "pecuhar" fonts — such  as  the  "Domesday"  char- 
acter, and  his  Greek  types  copying  the  letter  of  the  Alexan- 
drian Codex.  This  last  character,  reproducing  an  earlier, 
like  font,  was  magnificently  employed  by  John  Nichols  in 
his  great  folio  edition  of  Woide's  Novum  Testamentum  Gras- 
<7«/?2,  based  on  the  Codex  A/exandrinus,  printed  in  1786  at  the 
expense  of  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum.  Jackson's 
roman  letter,  which  more  concerns  us,  was  of  a  style  that 
also  took  a  middle  course  between  the  old-fashioned  Caslon 
and  the  more  modern  Baskerville  letter — somewhat  like  the 
earlier  Wilson  fonts.  Macklin's  Bible,  printed  by  Bensley 
in  seven  ponderous  folio  volumes,  is  the  best  example  of 
a  book  printed  from  these  new  double  English  roman  types. 
When  the  Bible  was  printed  as  far  as  Numbers,  Jackson 

A  Sfiecimen  of  Printing  Typ.es  by  Wm.  Caslon,  Letter- Founder  to  the  King. 
London  :  Printed  by  C.  Whittingham,  1798. 


122  PRINTING  TYPES 

died,  and  his  foundry  was  bought  by  William  Caslon  III, 
with  whom  Bensley  refused  to  have  dealings.  So  Vincent 
Figgins  I  cut  a  similar  font  in  which  the  Bible  was  com- 
pleted. He  was  disappointed  in  succeeding  to  Jackson's 
foundry  by  Caslon's  purchase  of  it,  and  he  set  up  a  foun- 
dry of  his  own,  which  for  the  period  w  as  one  of  the  best. 
Figgins'  Bible  type  was  used  for  Bensley's  fine  edition  of 
Thomson's  Seasons,  of  1797 — a  fact  recorded  on  the  title- 
page  thereto.  He  was  also  responsible  for  some  other  fonts, 
which  had  a  good  deal  of  popularity,  and  may  be  described 
as  a  sort  of  modified  old  style,  although  not  the  "modified 
old  style"  now  in  use.  His  first  specimen-book — issued  in 
1792 — was  printed  for  him  by  Bensley.  Figgins'  Greek 
types  cut  for  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  a  Persian  type 
for  Ouseley  the  Orientalist,  an  English  Telegu  font  for  the 
East  India  Company,  and  various  fonts  of  Domesday  char- 
acters attest  his  talents  and  reputation.  Vincent  Figgins  I 
died  in  1844. 

A  founder  eminent  in  the  late  eighteenth  century  was 
Thomas  Cottrell,  another  of  Caslon's  old  apprentices,  whose 
foundry  attained  unfortunate  prominence  in  the  hands  of 
Robert  Thorne,  who  bought  it  in  1794;  but  whose  "bold- 
faced" changes  (in  more  senses  than  one)  in  its  product 
were  reserved  for  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

To  understand  the  causes  of  the  revival  of  English  print- 
ing which  marked  the  last  years  of  the  century,  we  must 
remember  that  by  1775  Baskerville  was  dead;  that  An- 
drew Foulis  died  in  the  same  year,  and  Robert  in  1776. 
There  seems  to  have  been  a  temporary  lull  in  English  fine 
printing  and  the  kind  of  type-founding  that  contributed  to 
it.  The  wood-engraving  of  Thomas  Bewick,  produced  about 
1780,  called,  nevertheless,  for  more  brilliant  and  delicate 


Englifh. 


27  ^4^4^tI^'^'^lI^'^I!^'^4^ 
28 

29 


:3U 


30 


32  ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦xxxxxxxx^ 


33 
34 


######<## 


Pica. 


s'^^<!  >^<  i'^-'^.'  >*?§«  t^5'<  v^^i  x^t  if.^i  i^t  i^t  y^i  ><??'''  ^i  if^i  y^  y^  y^  y^.-^v 
V^  "sll*  "si"  "i^  3 ^  "s e"  'Sf^  'B?'  "sf  ^    3^  'i;i/^  y.f'  '^^^  'Sv?  '\^#''  '^*?  "& 


3 

4 

5 
6 

7 


C*^AO  fr*-^':  C-v^-j  CXyO  C^K^O  C<*^  C%*<1  C:^/*^;  t7:»Xi  CVO  Oj^J  {?VJ  CV^i  CX/O  OoO  f**  -'■-j  C%>-3  ( 


278.  Ornaments:  Fry  and  Steele  s  Specimen^  London^  1795 


Great  Primer  Roman,  No.  2. 

Quousque  tandem  abutere,  Catilina,  pa- 
tientia  nostra  ?  quamdiu  nos  etiam  furor 
iste  tuus  eludet?  quern  ad  finem  sese  ef- 
frenata  jactabit  audacia?  nihilne  te  noc- 
turnum  prsesidium  palatii,  nihil  urbis 
vigilias,  nihil  timor  populi,  nihil  consen- 
sus bonorum  omnium,  nihil  hie  muni- 
tissimus  habendi  senatus  locus,  nihil  ho- 
rum  ora  vultusque  moverunt  ?  patera 
tua  consilia  non  sentis  ?  constrictam  jam 
omnium  horum  conscientia  teneri  con- 
jurationem  tuam  non  vides  ?  quid  prox- 
ima,  quid  superiore,   nocte  egeris,  ubi 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS 

1234567890 

Great  Primer  Italic,  No.  2. 

Quoiisqiie  tandem  abutere^  Catilina^  p.a- 
tientia  nostra  f  quamdiu  nos  etiam  furor 
iste  tuns  eludet  f  quern  ad  finem  sese  ef- 
frenata  jactabit  audacia  ?  niliilne  te  ?ioc- 
turnum  jirasidium  Jialatii,  nihil  urbis  vi- 
gilia,  7tihil  timor  liojiuli^  nihil  consensus 
bonorum  omnium^  nihil  hie  munitissimus 
habendi  senatus  locus,  nihil  horum  ora 
vultusque  moverunt  f  fiatere  tua  consilia 

ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPdRSTU 

1234567890 

279.  Transitional  Types:  Caslon  Specimen^  London^  1798 


Great  Primer  FJowers. 


6 

7 
8 
9 

10 

U 

13 
15 
17 


m.'^^'i 


«^to  <;:>«?>  f^p>  f^Uf^  f^^U^  <^iK^  f^/^  'W^  '^^S^  '^>L'^  ^'k'^  /fi^ 


/  C?)^  Oj^*  Oj'' C?)J  C?3-' Vj^J  <^  J  Vj/*!-' «^ 


))iL'T)); 


^^-#^"^^"^ 


35. 


English  Flowers. 


4  ^^^^^^^^^-^^^^ 

5  ^<^^<^^<^.^<^s^<^>A<^^^ 


280.  Ornaments:  Caslon  Specimen^  London^  1798 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  123 

letter-press  than  either  Caslon's  or  Wilson's  types  could 
supply.  If  Baskerville's  fonts  had  been  available,  no  doubt 
they  would  have  served;  but  some  were  scattered  among 
English  printers  and  the  greater  part  were  in  France.  So 
the  next  experiments  in  typography  w^ere  made  by  a  little 
coterie  composed  of  the  Boydells,  the  Nicols,  the  Bewicks 
(Thomas  and  John),  and  Bulmer.  While  the  Foulis  and 
Wilson  influence  had  helped  a  taste  for  lighter  effects  in 
type,  this  new  group  sought  brilliant  effects  for  their  print- 
ing. It  was  natural,  therefore,  to  turn  to  a  type-cutter  who 
worked  in  the  "tradition"  of  Baskerville. 

Such  a  one  was  William  Martin,  who  learned  his  trade, 
apparently,  at  Baskerville's  foundry.  He  was  brother  to  Rob- 
ert Martin,  who  was  for  a  long  time  in  Baskerville's  employ. 
About  1786,  he  came  to  London  as  punch-cutter  to  George 
Nicol  (bookseller  to  George  III),  the  originator  of  the  plan 
for  the  "Boyd ell  Shakspeare."  He  was  employed  by  Nicol 
"to  cut  sets  of  types  after  approved  models  in  imitation  of 
the  sharp  and  fine  letter  used  by  the  French  and  Italian 
printers" — by  whom  Didot  and  Bodoni  were,  I  suppose, 
meant.  Now  this  is  just  what  Martin  did — more  Anglice. 
And  when  the  Shakspeare  Press  was  set  up  with  Bulmer 
in  command,  Martin  was  master  of  a  sort  of  "private  foun- 
dry" in  connection  therewith.  His  types  were  used  in  the 
"Boydell  Shakspeare,"  the  first  part  of  which  appeared  in 
1791,  in  the  Milton  of  1794-97,  and  in  Poems  by  Goldsmith 
and  Pamell  oi  1795.  These  books  will  be  discussed  later. 
Martin's  types,  both  roman  and  italic,  were  cut  to  imitate 
Baskerville's,  but  with  certain  fortunate  individualities.  A 
more  "modern"  quality  had  crept  into  these  fonts,  but  they 
were  very  splendid  of  their  kind. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  disparage  the  types  of  this 
post-Baskerville  movement ;  but  when  an  authority  says 


124  PRINTING  TYPES 

that  "the  revival  or  re-invention  of  wood  engraving  by  Be- 
wick about  1780  had  no  good  effect  on  printing,  the  new 
illustrations  being  too  delicate  to  print  well  with  type,"  is 
this  entirely  fair?  It  is  not  true  of  books  like  the  Goldsmith 
and  Parnell,  illustrated  by  the  Bewicks  and  printed  from 
Martin's  types.  These  new  illustrations  did  print  well  with 
type,  though  with  type  some  persons  dislike.  Whether  or 
not  we  wholly  approve  of  such  types  or  books,  the  press- 
work  is  often  splendid,  the  types  are  fine  of  their  kind,  the 
books  reflect  the  taste  of  their  day,  and  the  performance  as 
a  whole  "hangs  together." 

William  Martin  cut  some  Greek  and  Oriental  fonts,  but 
he  will  be  best  remembered  by  his  wonderful  roman  and 
italic — fonts  skilfully  employed  by  McCreery  in  his  poem 
The  Press  (1803) — and  the  splendid  form  of  modern  face 
letter  used  by  Bulmer  in  Dibdin's  bibliographical  works. 
Martin  died  in  the  summer  of  1815. 1  am  glad  to  place  this 
sprig  of  rosemary  to  the  memory  of  a  master  of  his  art, 
whose  work  closes  a  chapter  in  English  letter-founding.^ 


ENGLISH  books  between  1500  and  1800  are  impor- 
tant to  us  as  the  sources  from  which  most  of  our  pres- 
ent-day styles  in  printing  are  derived.  The  sixteenth  century 
is  an  archaic  period  typographically  in  England,  and  its 

*  Martin  never  issued,  I  think,  a  specimen  of  his  foundry,  but  a  selection  of 
his  types,  as  employed  by  John  McCreery  of  Liverpool,  is  shown  —  to  no 
very  great  advantage — in  ji  Sfiecimen  of  Improved  Tyfies  of  G.  F.  Har- 
ris, Printer,  successor  to  Air.  John  McCreery,  Houghton  Street,  Liverfiool 
(1807) .  This  was  the  only  provincial  printing-house  owning  any  of  Martin's 
fonts.  They  were  cast  for  its  collection  by  arrangement  with  Bulmer  and 
Nicol.  The  "Shakspeare"  types  are  said  to  be  numbered  16,  17,  18,  19, 
20,  21,  22,  23,  26,  and  27.  Martin's  foundry,  for  a  short  period  after  his 
death,  was  continued  by  Bulmer.  A  portion  of  its  material  appears  to  have 
been  sold  to  the  Caslons  in  1817. 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  125 

interest  is  mainly  historical.  While  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury English  books  are  less  archaic,  its  traditions  have  but 
little  effect  on  our  printing  to-day.  But  eighteenth  century 
work,  especially  after  the  advent  of  Caslon,  has  a  close  con- 
nection with  nineteenth  and  twentieth  century  printing;  and 
the  influence  of  its  somewhat  dubious  taste  is  shown,  in 
recent  years,  in  American  books  and  especially  in  ephem- 
eral typography.  The  books  used  to  illustrate  the  progres- 
sion of  English  type-forms  during  these  three  centuries  are 
chosen  from  the  rank  and  file  of  volumes  of  their  respective 
periods — although  among  them  there  are  some  remarkable 
specimens  of  book-making. 

§1 

"William  Herman's  Fulgaria — a  book  of  common  Eng- 
lish phrases  with  their  Latin  equivalents — was  printed  by 
Pynson  at  London  in  1519.  The  border  on  its  title-page  is 
an  adaptation  of  a  familiar  Italian  design.  The  title  within 
it  is  set  wholly  in  roman  type.  The  prefatory  matter  em- 
ploys the  same  roman  fonts,  and  the  body  of  the  book  is 
set  in  two  sizes  of  roman.  Divisions  of  subject  begin  with 
woodcut  initials,  or  spaces  for  painted  initials.  The  book  is 
an  early  example  of  a  volume  printed  throughout  in  roman 
fonts ;  and  in  appearance  is  rather  more  like  Continental 
work  than  current  English  printing  {Jig.  255). 

A  second  sixteenth  century  book  is  Gower's  Confessio 
Amantis,  printed  by  Berthelet  in  1532.  The  text  is  set 
chiefly  in  two  sizes  of  black-letter  midway  between  batarde 
and  lettre  de  forme ^  but  the  preface  employs  a  purely  Eng- 
lish lettre  de  forme.  Latin  quotations  are  set  in  roman  — 
a  beautiful  font — and  running-titles  in  roman  capitals. 
This  mixture  of  roman  and  black-letter  types  is  a  sign  of 
decadence,  and  prefigured  a  period  when  the  role  of  the 


126  PRINTING  TYPES 

two  types  \^ouId  be  reversed,  and  black-letter  would  be 
used  only  for  "displayed"  lines  and  such-like.  Berthelet  was 
a  Frenchman,  and  this  book  has  a  certain  workmanlike 
quality,  and  indeed  elegance,  which  is  somewhat  French, 
and  its  title-page  is  ornamented  after  a  design  by  Tory. 
The  Gower,  and  books  by  Sir  Thomas  Elyot,  are  consid- 
ered among  Berthelet's  best  productions  {Jig.  28 1). 

The  year  1532  is  also  the  date  of  the  first  collected  edi- 
tion of  Chaucer's  TForks^  printed  by  Thomas  Godfrey  of 
London.  The  text  is  composed  in  a  French  lettre  batarde^ 
but  an  English  lettre  de  forme  is  used  as  an  ornamental 
letter,  for  display  on  the  very  handsome  bordered  title-page, 
and  elsewhere.  The  Preface  is  also  set  in  it — and  a  line  of 
roman  letter  is  used  at  least  once  {Jig.  282).  Ten  years  later 
(1542),  a  second  edition  appeared,  printed  by  Pynson,  also 
set  in  black-letter,  but  entirely  of  the  English  variety — a 
rather  solid  lettre  de  forme  —  a  consistently  Gothic  book  and 
purely  English  in  type-forms  and  in  taste.  The  poems  in 
both  these  editions  are  set  in  double  column  {fig.  283). 

The  Cosmographicall  Glasse,  by  William  Cunningham, 
a  Norwich  physician,  was  printed  by  John  Day  in  1559, 
and  has  been  called  "a  real  landmark  in  English  book-pro- 
duction. In  addition  to  its  fine  types,  this  book  is  noted  for  its 
woodcut  diagrams  and  pictorial  capitals,  ornamental  title- 
page,  large  map  of  Norwich  and  ...  a  strong  and  vigorous 
portrait  of  the  author."^  As  a  piece  of  printing,  nothing  bet- 
ter had  hitherto  appeared  in  England.  It  shows  the  influ- 
ence of  foreign  typography  {fig.  284).  Day's  device,  which 
appears  at  the  end  of  the  volume,  should  be  noticed. 

In  1570,  John  Day  printed  in  folio  the  Elements  of  Ge- 

*  The  copy  in  the  British  Museum  has  been  skilfully  reproduced  in  facsimile 
by  the  Oxford  University  Press  (1905). 
'Pollard's  Fine  Books,  p.  260. 


«  U  «  JS  **  ^  ** 


o      ^  o^^  w'TS  C^  B«^        o^^o'-^S 

S>s3  ^^  *-  JS  *?  «>!=^  2   S=N  J-   C -2   =   «j>   t-   ^   ^^  <^  (« 


^^2 


> 
U 


*.3.<l  s-llilil  gd  Fit 

s  5^ir»'^  ^-^  HiX  "s^g  Js^-S's  o-i*^'^ 


**•  •  —  s  « 

s:  £  P  9 


NW^f^'c^^W  7:^    >    fi^    (J    0       y 


^  s  g  i 


Dq 


2*-   t»w  a.^2t:*    gii    w'— .r*   W   04-t   PS.'^   o   s  V-  e 

O  I 

K  «*0  too  >«ft"»^JS.  "^ 

♦**P  3 


^3 


o 


^1^ 


i 


a  o  S{ 

«  -♦  o 

to  V  tD 

«  to  « 


^*      •^      >N.      tA 

^  ^^^^  iT.^  to 
o  ^  ^  — ,— » 

C  «   'i^    _ 


**      fcV       ^  ' 

•J  C*  •-* 

••    <^    *> 

iO  ■•*  •*r 
o  ^  tS 

<Lk      tJ    <0 


a. 


^  3  ^  A-sr 
o  oa  /»  « 


*~  •-»  <^ 


<^ 


^   3^-S  ^  Jo 

o  :^  uk 


,^iK.  ^-'    •:*    ^^    bA    >-^ 


hk       ^ 


°^ 

<&•-*-►  5r  to-  vS  Vi*  ^*  3 
o  '^  -«-»  ? 


^^    ♦^ 


S  '=«  o  B 


■2*  a.t£>  cS 
^  ^  ^  nC. 


CO    o  ^  ^ 


.(ac-tc- -*   C   -*   ii   C** 

•*-^     n   •*-*    -i,^     S^    ■<^     A,n   ••    '^- 

/:>  ^  >o  «  /o  «^^  « 


.i^-  ^3  vjw  <as>- v:=-  ^    •*-     ~"    ta 


■**  CO   St  ^ 

£.»    S    «    tJ 


,4^  GO 

Si  o 


s 


s  s 


^    II.Sto«  O- 


^o  — 

r"i  St 

«^  o 
to?? 


^  « tak  o 


t5 


«o 

"        » to* 


g  tc-:2-  to 
*5  '^^  '^  ^* 

^    to    2*    « 
^  -^  tS   o 

«  ■**  t>   ^ 
ta»  3  to«^J 


^*^^.<>tO   =^   3 

^    S    Ck.    ?*     •-    ^ 

^  S  «  «  3  E  ti 
St  '^  ©::  ^  vs.<=^  s 

^S-^'g  -  §  ^ 
*^  ^^^  :rt  S  Sf 


«^ 

j-k  r?   <^ 

<^  i^   *-k 

a  *^  '^ 

o  <^  ^ 

to  «  tS 
^   1^  — . 

J*  y  3 

^  «  "" 

<o  X  ^ 

IP 


"2 


o 
a 
2 

6 

^ 


1* 
S 


1^ 

00 


Si*. 

1^ 


O  C  JS  «  « 


o 

<8 


S5  ^  R  *^  **  rr     «^'5s 


.S 

411* 


s 


^    ^    » 


vt 

?* 

<!-» 


s  ^  H 


*m*  nemt   ^5 
3^   11^ 


^ 

ca 


O 


^.  >lll  1&^         C  ft* 

**  «  S  s;      S,'ri 


S  H  ^  5^  S  « 


*^  .^  -ft*  "ft^'s?. «  ft*  ^  o  S  s  S  cs 


«^^  ti^  ti^  S5-B  ^+2*;*  gjj^ 

*i  ^S  S  «.i:^  «  S  «  S  ti  g-SS*.©^ 


■^ 
c 


?3 


f 


^: 


ivTHE  SECO^T>E  'BOOKIE  OF 

the  Cofmograbhtcall  Glajfe:in'fi?hkb  is  plainly  expnjfed  tJ?e 

Order,  and  NHmbeyyOf^>ies,Paral/eles,and  Climates.  Alfofiiti- 

dry  waits  for  th' exaHc  fndyng  out  of  the  Meridians  Line: 

The  Lon^tude,&  La^tHde,ofplaces:ufith  many  other 

precepteSjhelongyng  to  the  makjng  of  a 

Carte^or  Mappe, 


5^  S^oud^uSc 


O'R^HSVSTHE 

Godofdreames,  mth  his 
Jlepie  rodde,lo  much  this 
lafi  night  frequented  my 
compame^that(mj>  bodje 
taking  reB)mj  mind  was 
much  more  buftlie  traue- 


^  \ling  infuch  conclujions  as 

_  "^^Ihad  learnid  ofThiloni" 

CHS, the  it  vpaj  in  the  time  of  his  teaching,  Forfome  time 
Alorphemjhen^edme  the  Sonne ^in  the  tropicke  ofCa^ 
fricornefarre  in  the  South, among  the  cloudy  eff^ies,  as  ^^^itrrZ 
he  comenly  is  the,i7^,day  of  December:  And  next  he  ap-  pi^HCapri- 
peredin  tySquinoBiallpointes^as  it  is  the  tenth  daye  ofi'^  ^°t^  ^i"'- 
March, and  theA/\..  ofSepteb.willing  me  with  great  di  L. 
liges  to  note  that  par  allele  circle.  Shortly  after  the f one 
appeared  in  the  tropic/^  of  Cancer, in  Mphiche  place  he  is  j„  theTropic^. 
the,  12 .  daye  ofIune,c.au/ing  in  our  region  the  logeU  day  °f 
in  theyere.(^  imediatly  the  time  femed as itwere  mid^ 
night,^^^  Charles  JVayne,mth  Bootes,  (s^  diners  other 
Ikrres, turned  about  the  ^ole^utashe  woldhaue  ca^ 
riedme  about  the  heaues, to  haueJhemdmethe3\(orth 

F.iij.  CroMpne 

284.  Page  of  Cunningham  s  Cosmographicall  Glasse 
Day^  London^  1559  (reduced) 


■Canar. 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  127 

ometrie  of  the  Most  Auncient  Philosopher  Euclide  ofMegara^ 
composed  in  ronian  and  italic  fonts.  The  title  is  set  in  small 
panels  within  a  woodcut  border,  and  is  followed  by  the 
translator's  address,  set  in  Day's  imposing  italic.  Then 
comes  a  mathematical  "Praeface,"  set  in  two  sizes  of  a 
fairly  handsome  and  evenly  cut  roman  type  of  early  design, 
and  the  folding-table  or  "ground-plat"  accompanying  it 
may  be  studied  as  a  specimen  of  the  various  fonts  in  Day's 
office.  In  the  body  of  the  book  the  "propositions"  are  ar- 
ranged in  a  large  italic  letter,  and  "demonstrations"  in  a 
smaller  size  of  it.  Both  are  good,  free,  lively,  old  style  italic 
fonts.  The  old  style  roman  letter  used  with  them  is  like 
that  of  the  Preface.  Diagrams  are  placed  within  the  area 
of  the  text  pages,  but  arranged  without  much  sense  of  style. 
Beginning  \vith  the  seventh  Book,  the  type  employed  is  re- 
duced in  size,  and  from  this  point  the  work  is  less  interest- 
ing. Though  some  of  Day's  types  are  exceedingly  fine,  and 
the  general  effect  of  the  volume  is  imposing,  the  presswork 
is  wretchedly  uneven,  the  paper  too  thin,  and  when  closely 
examined  it  is  not  a  really  successful  piece  of  work.  It  lacks 
the  taste  and  lucidity  shown  in  French  books  of  like  nature. 
Another  book  of  Day's,  showing  his  use  of  black-letter, 
is  the  1571  edition  of  Roger  Ascham's  Scholemaster.  Here 
the  title-page  is  set  chiefly  in  italic  type,  the  Dedicatory 
Epistle  in  italic,  and  the  Preface  in  roman — both  rather 
roughly  executed  fonts  and  by  no  means  well  printed. 
Though  the  text  of  the  book  is  black-letter,  all  tabulated 
matter  is  set  in  italic,  English  poetry  in  roman,  Latin  verse 
in  italic,  roman  is  used  for  proper  names,  and  here  and 
there  a  very  good  Greek  font  is  introduced  {fig.  285).  In 
short,  black-letter  is  being  invaded  on  every  hand.  The  book 
shows  care  in  execution,  and  is  attractive  in  spite  of  its 
hodge-podge  of  types. 


128  PRINTING  TYPES 

Thomas  Walsingham's  Historia  Brevis  (covering  reigns 
from  Edward  I  to  Henry  V)  was  printed  at  London  by 
Henry  Bynneman.  The  woodcut  border  on  the  carefully 
arranged  title-page  is  extraordinarily  well  engraved  and 
beautifully  printed.  The  text  is  set  throughout  in  roman  and 
italic  type.  The  Preface,  which  begins  with  a  very  elegant 
woodcut  initial,  is  composed  in  Day's  noble  italic  letter. 
The  Chronicle  is  printed  in  a  small  but  excellent  roman 
character,  very  even  in  cut,  and  reminiscent  of  early  Conti- 
nental fonts.  Each  "reign"  begins  with  a  large  initial,  cut 
on  wood,  and  lines  at  the  ends  of  sections  are  tapered,  or 
arranged  in  an  ornamental  fashion  recalling  Italian  print- 
ing—  indeed,  the  composition  is  more  like  Continental  than 
current  English  work.  It  is  far  ahead  of  most  English  books 
of  its  time  in  simplicity  of  arrangement  and  excellence  of 
workmanship.  Bynneman  printed  the  Historia  at  Arch- 
bishop Parker's  expense  in  1574,  and  it  was  bound  up  and 
published  with  Walsingham's  Ypodigma  Neustriae  and  the 
^Ifredi  Regis  Res  Gestae^  both  printed  by  Day  in  the  same 
year. 

North's  translation  of  Plutarch's  Lives,  printed  by  Vau- 
trollier  in  1579,  enjoys  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the 
finest  books  issued  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  for  that  reason 
I  advise  its  examination  by  the  student,  though  it  is  by  no 
means  a  beautiful  book,  judged  by  present  standards. 

Our  last  sixteenth  century  example  is  Adam  Islip's  folio 
Chaucer,  printed  at  London  in  1598.  Its  prefatory  matter 
is  set  in  roman  and  italic,  with  some  black-letter  inter- 
mingled— and  in  the  large  sizes  the  first  two  types  are  re- 
spectable fonts.  The  text,  however,  is  set  in  black-letter  in 
double  column — roman  and  italic  being  employed  only  for 
lines  to  be  displayed.  In  other  words,  the  printer  had  come 
to  use  roman  and  italic  types  just  as  we  should  now  use 


J^Thc  fecond  Booke.        51 


as  H  fain  befo^e,Cl^al  come  m 

nes  in  tranJlating,  tijen  to  a 
ripe  9  tkilMl  cljoire  tn  mar^ 
^ing  outl3t0t)t;pointe$>a0» 


< 


^f.  Prcprium. 
2.TrafjJIatum, 

^,  Contrmmn, 
J.  Diuerfum. 
\  S.  Phrafcs, 

%\itnUU  to  daDerl»it&ftimsi^ea?)Da5lsl3ntote,  ^.^^^^ 
fomc  babe  of  TuMie,astbetIjiri3b®keof C^piftlctf  tWm       * 
ootb^Sturmius,</f  ^w/f:irM,^«?Sfw^?«^^,  ojtijat  epceilent 
C^ptmeconeetninsalmoft  tbetobolefirftbofee  adQ^fr^: 
fomc  ComeOie  of  Terence  o;  Plaiitvsibut  in  Plautus,  ffti^  Tfrentim^ 
fuUcfjpifemuabeetjfeeb^tbsCpaiaer,  totraine  bi^^cbo^  />/^«,«,, 
fereo  a  iuogcmenMn  cutting  out  perfectly  oaerolcf  i  tn* 
proper  tuojDc0:  Caef.  Commftarica  are  to  bee  reab  toitb  all  /.v/,ay;,r, 
curtoatte,tobcrin  efpectalli?  loitbout  al  cpceptio  to  be  mabc, 
eitber  b?  frcno  o j  foe,  10  feene ,  tbc  bnfpottes  pjop^ietic  of 
tbe  3latin  tong,  cuen  tubcn  \i  teas,  as  tbe  CDrecians  fat?,  \xi 
dxfx-;,,  tbat  is,  at  J  bigbeft  pitcb  of  all  perfbctnejf,  oj  fome  ^i 
rationsofT.Liuius,fucba0beebotblongeftaniiplainea.  ^^'•««- 

2nbefeba)!tc0,3i  UioulQbaue  bim  rcaunoto,  agmboeale 
at  euerr  lecture :  fo  j  bee  Ojall  not  not»  W  ml'2  tranOation, 
hut  onelr  conttrue  againe,  ano  parfc ,  fobcre  ^c  fufpctt,  is 
mv  naeoc:  ^et,lct  him  not  omitte  in  tbefe  bafecgjbis  fo;mer 
epercife,  in  marking  Diligently,  anb  touting  o;iOerlB  out 
bis  Uvz  point  f  s.  jano  fo?  tran0ating,bfc  ^ou  ^our  felfc,cne^ 
r^  fccono  o^  tbirs  Dap ,  to  cbofe  o«t,fome  Cpiftle  ad<iAttt» 
f«w,  fome  nofable  common  place  out  of  bi«  i^Djations,  o> 
fome  ot^er  part  ofTulUe,b2  tour  Difcrction,  iubi£l)l!0«r 

l^.iij,  fcljoler 


285.  Page  of  Ascharn's  Scholemaster^  showing  Roman^  Italic 
and  Black-letter:  Day^  London^  1571 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  129 

black-letter — as  an  "occasional"  type  for  display  or  orna- 
ment. The  unity  of  effect  seen  in  the  editions  of  Chaucer 
of  1532  and  1542  has  disappeared;  and  black-letter  type 
(which  survived  for  poetry  and  romances  into  the  next  cen- 
tury, for  Bibles  and  prayer  books  until  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century/  and  which  was  still  used  for  legal  books 
in  the  eighteenth  century)  is  giving  way  to  roman  letters. 
This  edition  is  interesting  only  for  that  reason. 

The  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  was  signalized  by  the  appearance  of 
Shakespeare's  Plays,  both  separately  in  quarto,  and  collec- 
tively in  folio.  The  first  quarto  was  Venus  and  Adonis, 
printed  in  1593.  The  first  folio  appeared  in  1623.  The 
quartos,  now  the  most  valuable,  but  then  sold  for  about  six- 
pence, were  printed  from  rough  roman  types,  with  rather 
heavy  title-pages,  in  which  capitals  and  lower-case  letters 
were  used  for  titles  quite  indiscriminately.  The  folios  were 
printed  in  double  column,  with  the  text  in  roman  and  the 
names  of  the  characters  in  italic;  and  although  the  prefa- 
tory matter  was  set  in  handsome  type,  the  body  of  the  work 
had  from  a  printer's  standpoint  no  particular  typographi- 
cal interest.  The  quartos  had  no  more  beauty  than  one 
would  expect  in  a  cheap  edition  of  a  popular  play.  They 
are  mentioned  here  solely  because  of  their  place  in  litera- 

'  The  first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI,  printed  by  Whitchurch,  appeared  in 
1549;  and  the  Book  of  Common  Praier,  musically  "noted"  by  Merbecke, 
was  printed  by  Grafton,  in  1550.  These  were  black-letter  books.  Prayer 
books  and  liturgies  were  printed  in  black-letter  until  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  centuiy.  The  first  English  Bible  (printed  abroad,  probably  at 
Zurich),  in  1535,  was  executed  in  black-letter.  Cranmer's  English  Bible  of 
1539  (Whitchurch)  was  a  black-letter  book.  The  first  edition  of  the  King 
James  "Authorized  Version"  of  1611  was  set  in  English  black-letter,  with 
contents  of  chapters  set  in  roman.  Bibles  and  prayer  books  are  so  much  in  a 
class  by  themselves,  that  I  have  not  usually  employed  them  as  examples  of 
printing. 


130  PRINTING  TYPES 

ture ;  and  they  have  a  literature  of  their  own.  The  first  edi- 
tion of  Shakespeare  in  which  much  typographical  excel- 
lence was  attempted,  was  printed  at  the  University  Press, 
Oxford,  in  the  eighteenth  century.^ 

§2 

Seventeenth  century  English  books,  save  legal  works,  some 
Bibles  and  prayer  books,  and  survivals  of  "vernacular" 
black-letter  in  romances  and  poetry,  were  almost  entirely 
printed  from  roman  and  italic  fonts ;  yet  they  have  an  ar- 
chaic appearance,  due  in  part  to  crude  types,  but  even  more 
to  antique  spelling.  Title-pages  were  sometimes  decorated 
with  engravings  on  metal,  sometimes  with  impressions  from 
wood-blocks,  and  more  often  merely  surrounded  with  double 
rules  or  panels  of  type  ornament. 

Our  first  seventeenth  century  example  is  Philemon  Hol- 
land's translation  of  Pliny's  Natural  History,  printed  in  two 
folio  volumes,  by  Adam  Islip,  in  1601.  It  is  set  throughout 
in  roman  and  italic  types  of  even  (and  early)  cut.  The  first 
two  or  three  lines  of  its  title-page  are,  I  think,  printed  from 
wood-blocks.  The  subject  of  each  chapter  is  displayed  in 
handsome  italic,  and  the  chapter  itself  usually  begins  with 
a  three-line  initial,  except  when  a  chapter  contains  but  two 
lines !  Head-lines  to  pages  are  set  in  large  old  style  lower- 
case roman  letters;  proems — or  Arguments — in  italic; 
marginal  notes  in  tiny  roman  and  italic  types.  Woodcut 

'  An  interesting  comparison  may  be  made  between  the  Shakespeare  Folios  of 
1623  and  1632  (issued  in  facsimile  by  Methuen  6c  Co.,  London,  in  1910  and 
1909),  Hanmer's  edition  published  in  1744,  Bulmer's  quarto  edition  of  1791, 
the  Vale  Press  Shakespeare  of  1900,  the  Doves  Press  Hamlet  of  1909,  and 
the  Stratford-Town  edition  of  1904,  printed  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Bullen  at  the 
Shakespeare  Head  Press  — the  latter  the  first  complete  edition  printed  in  the 
poet's  native  place.  For  the  orthography  of  Shakespeare,  especially  in  relation 
to  printing,  see  Shakesfieare' s  England,  Vol.  II,  Chapter  xxx,  Shakespeare's 
English,  by  Heniy  Bradley  (Section  Orthography),  pp.  546  etseq. 


tl^      T^he  thirteenth  boof^  of 

Thisfaidjthe  people  with  a  ioyfull  Inoute 
Applaud  his  fpecches  and  his  words  approue. 
And  calm'd  their  griefc  in  hope  the  boafter  ftoute 
Would  kill  the  Prince,,  who  late  had  flaine  his  loue, 
O  promifc  vaine !  it  otherwife  fell  out : 
Men  purpofe^jbut  high  Gods  difpole  aboue. 

For  vnderneath  his  fvvord  this  boafter  dide. 
Whom  thus  he  fcorn'd  and  threat'iiedin  his  pride. 


The  thirteenth'\Boo^o/GodfrcY 
of^ulloigne. 

The  argument. 

liincno fets  tog^rde  theforreli  ohU 
The  wicked Jf  rites, 'who fe  ouglyjhapes  affray 
i^nd put  to  flight  the  menyvhofe  Uhour  tx>oulA 
To  their  darkejhades  let  in  hentins  golden  ray  i 
Thither  goes  Tancred  hardiefntthfidlibould, 
Butfoolijhpitie  lets  him  not  a[fay 

Hliflrength  and  courage :  heat  the  ChrtUknpmn 
Annoies^^hom  to  re  fief h  Gods  fends  ajhowre, 
I 
Vt  fcant  diflblued  into  afhes  cold 
>Thc  fmoking  towre  fell  on  the  fcorched  graflc. 
When  new  deuife found  out  th'enchanter  old, 
By  which  the  towne  befieg'd^fecured  was. 
Of  timber  fit  his  foes  depriue  he  wold : 
Such  terrour  bred  that  late  confumed  maflfc. 

So  that  the  ftrength  of  Sions  walles  to  fhake. 
They  {hould  no  turrets^rammes^nor  cngins  make. 

286.  Type  a?id  Ornaments  in  Tas.so\s  Godfrey  of  Bulloipie 
Hatfield,  London,  1600 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  131 

head-bands  and  lines  of  type  "flowers"  are  employed  for 
ornament.  It  is  a  handsome  book  of  its  time,  though  pon- 
derous; and  readable  to-day — if  to-day  one  wants  to  read 
Pliny — or  folios! 

For  a  contemporaneous  book  of  poetry  (I6OO),  look  at 
Fairfax's  translation  of  Tasso's  Godfrey  of  Bulloigne  orthe 
Recoverie  of  Jerusalem^  printed  in  folio  by  Arnold  Hatfield 
for  J.  Jaggard  and  M.  Lownes.  A  simple  and  well-managed 
title-page  in  a  generous  panel  of  type-ornament  opens  the 
book.  Some  good  italic  is  employed  in  the  preliminary  Ad- 
dress. The  poem  itself  is  set  in  an  agreeable  old  style  roman 
font,  very  even  in  design,  with  Arguments  in  a  lively  italic. 
Each  Book  begins  with  a  head-band  of  type-ornament.  It  is 
a  very  readable  edition,  and  good  to  look  at  for  its  clarity 
of  effect  and  its  more  modern  air  {fg.  286). 

Recreations  with  the  Muses^  by  William  Alexander,  Earl 
of  Stirling,  brought  out  at  London  in  1637  by  Thomas 
Harper,  a  printer  of  reputation,  is  a  small  folio  composed 
chiefly  in  a  rough  roman  character.  The  head-lines  are  set 
in  a  coarse  italic,  between  light  rules,  which  also  carry  the 
folio.  A  handsome  border  to  the  title-page,  some  ungainly 
initials,  and  head-bands  usually  made  up  of  "flowers"  are 
its  principal  decoration.  The  type  is  rough,  the  presswork 
is  rough,  the  paper  harsh,  and  the  whole  book  gives  the 
effect  of  belonging  to  an  ancient  period.  But  no  black-letter 
is  used  in  it. 

The  first  edition  of  Thomas  Fuller's  Holy  and  Profane 
State^  in  folio,  was  very  well  printed  at  Cambridge  by  Roger 
Daniel  in  1642.  An  engraved  title  is  followed  by  a  title-page, 
set  in  type,  very  well  composed,  surrounded  by  a  border  of 
"flowers"  within  rules.  An  Address  to  the  Reader  follows  in 
a  large  roman  type  of  considerable  distinction  and  delicacy 
of  cut.  The  Index  to  Chapters  employs  a  brilliant  italic  — 


132  PRINTING  TYPES 

very  creditable  for  an  English  book  of  the  time.  The  arable 
figures  used  are  remarkably  good  in  design.  The  book 
proper  begins  with  a  woodcut  head-piece,  with  the  title  be- 
neath it  in  a  thin  lower-case  letter  of  rather  French  appear- 
ance. The  body  of  the  work  is  arranged  in  a  handsome 
roman  letter,  with  sentences  which  begin  each  new  para- 
graph like  a  text,  in  italic.  Each  page  is  surrounded  by  rules, 
the  side-notes  being  in  marginal  panels.  The  type  and  press- 
work  are  vastly  clearer  than  in  most  English  books  then 
current. 

Walton's  great  London  Polyglot  in  six  folio  volumes,  pub- 
lished between  1653  and  1657,  does  not  come  within  the 
scope  of  our  discussion.  It  is  not  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
Polyglots  nor  a  normal  example  of  book-making,  for  its 
remarkable  feature  is  its  employment  of  "learned"  types; 
though  some  of  Day's  fonts  are  utilized  for  the  prefatory 
matter  in  the  copies  with  the  "Royal"  dedication.  Yet  it  is 
none  the  less  to  be  examined  as  the  greatest  typographical 
achievement  of  the  century,  printed  from  types  entirely  cut 
by  English  hands.  Its  printer  was  Thomas  Roycroft,  whose 
fine  editions  of  the  classics, —  Virgil,  Homer,  iEsop,  etc., — 
translated  by  John  Ogilby,  may  be  consulted  for  examples 
of  his  work.  He  was  appointed  Printer  in  Oriental  Lan- 
guages by  Charles  II.  Roycroft  died  in  1677,  and  is  buried 
at  St.  Bartholomew's  the  Great,  Smithfield.  The  name  of 
this  great  scholar-printer  has  in  our  day  become  familiar 
in  connection  with  a  commercial  venture  of  dubious  typo- 
graphical value. 

A  famous  seventeenth  century  volume — Izaak  Walton's 
Lives — was  printed  by  Newcomb  in  1670.  In  this,  head- 
lines are  set  in  a  lettre  de  forme,  the  text  in  a  rough  old 
style  roman  type — perhaps  Dutch.  Where  correspondence 
is  introduced,  it  is  printed  in  italic.  Each  Life  has  its  own 


C?) 


The  Life. 


GBoYge  Herbert  was  born  the  Third 
day  of  Afril^  in  the  Year  o[  our 
Redemption  1 5^5.  The  place  of 
his  Birth  was  near  to  the  Town 
of  Montgomer J ^zndi  in  that  Caflle 
thit  did  then  bear  the  name  of  that  Town  and 
County  5  that  Crf/^/f  was  then  a  place  of  ftate 
and  ftrength,  and  had  been  fuccellively  happy 
in  the  Family  of  the  Herberts,  ivho  had  long 
pofTeft  it :  and,  with  it,  a  plentiful  Eftate,  and 
hearts  as  liberal  to  their  poor  Neighbours,  A 
Family,  that  hath  been  bleft  with  men  of  re- 
markable wifdora ,  and  with  a  willingnefs  to 
ferve  their  Countrey,  and  indeed,  to  do  good  to 
all  Mankinds  for  which,  they  were  eminent: 
But  alas  1  this  Family  did  in  the  late  Rebellion 
fuffer  extremely  in  their  Eftates  5  and  the  Heirs 
of  that  Cafile^  faw  it  laid  level  with  that  earth 
that  was  too  good  to  bury  thofe  Wretches  thac 
ivere  the  caufe  of  it. 

The  Father  of  our  George^  was  Richard  Her-- 
hm  the  Son  of  Edward  Herbert  Knight ,  the 
Son  of  if;^^4r^//^r^^?'?  Knight,  the  Son  of  the 
hmQVi%Sii  Richard  Herbert  oiColebr  00k  in  the 

County 

287.  Pag-e  of  Walton's  Lives:  Newcomh^  London^  1670 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  133 

title-page,  in  which  the  use  of  very  large  spaced  capitals 
for  unimportant  words  is  a  characteristic  touch.  In  spite  of 
its  antiquated  appearance,  it  is  a  readable  volume  with  a 
certain  agreeable  flavour  {Jig.  287). 

Other  seventeenth  century  books  of  interest  are  Chis- 
well's  1686  edition  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne's  JVorksdmd  the 
folio  edition  of  Shelton's  translation  of  Do7i  Quixote^  printed 
in  1675. 

Tonson's  folio  edition  of  Dryden's  translation  of  the  works 
of  Virgil  was  printed  in  1697,  and  we  may  close  the  cen- 
tury with  this  noble  book.  The  title-page  in  red  and  black 
is  set  chiefly  in  enormous  capital  letters,  used  without  much 
sense  of  value — "Works,"  for  instance,  being  much  larger 
than  "Virgil."  This  title-page  is  surrounded  with  double 
rules,  and  the  field  of  this  page  is  again  set  ofl"  into  com- 
partments by  single  rules  —  a  favourite  arrangement  in  the 
seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries.  An  odd  feature 
is  a  list  of  subscribers  to  the  illustrations — engravings  on 
copper  described  on  the  title-page  as  "Sculptures,"  which 
cost  the  donor  five  guineas  each.  The  actual  book  begins 
with  the  Eclogues.  The  poetry  is  set  in  roman  type  heavily 
leaded,  and  names  of  speakers  in  spaced  italic  capitals. 
Arguments  are  set  in  the  inevitable  italic,  with  proper  names 
in  roman.  The  narrow  measure  of  the  type-pages  and  the 
enormous  margins  give  an  air  of  great  luxury.  We  begin 
to  see  a  modern  book  here. 

§3 

The  folio  edition  of  Clarendon's  History  of  the  Rebellion, 
printed  in  1702-4,  at  the  Theatre,^  Oxford,  in  three  volumes, 
is  one  of  the  fine  eighteenth  century  books  from  the  Oxford 
Press.  The  prefaces  to  each  volume  employ  a  large  "Fell" 

*  The  Sheldonian  Theatre,  in  which  the  Oxford  Press  was  then  housed. 


134  PRINTING  TYPES 

italic,  very  splendid  in  effect;  the  History  itself  being  com- 
posed in  a  large  roman  letter  solidly  set,  perhaps  of  Dutch 
cut,  or  one  of  the  Fell  types.  Each  division  of  the  History  has 
a  displayed  half-title;  and  every  new  Book  is  ornamented 
with  an  engraved  head-piece  and  initial,  and  ends  with  a 
tail-piece — imposing  pieces  of  decoration.  Though  the 
presswork  is  uneven,  the  edition  is  both  sumptuous  and 
simple  —  a  combination  difficult  to  effect. 

"I  know  it  will  be  said,  what  has  a  woman  to  do  with  learn- 
ing," wrote  Elizabeth  Elstob,  mistress  of  eight  languages, 
in  the  preface  to  her  translation  ofyi?i  English-Saxon  Hom- 
ily on  the  Birth-day  of  Saint  Gregory.  This  particular  lady 
had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  it,  and  she  is  interesting  typo- 
graphically because  her  book,  printed  by  the  elder  William 
Bowyer  in  1709,  employed  some  Anglo-Saxon  types  —  in 
their  day  remarkable.  The  Homily  is  a  good  example  of  a 
well-made  edition,  issued  by  a  careful  publisher  for  a  dis- 
tinguished company  of  subscribers.  A  crowded  and  rather 
seventeenth  century  title-page  is  followed  by  an  Address  to 
the  Queen  composed  in  a  large  old  style  roman  letter.  The 
principle  in  this  and  other  dedications,  typographically, 
was  that  the  larger  the  type,  the  greater  the  patron;  and  the 
smaller  the  name  of  the  writer,  the  more  grovelling  was  his 
abasement.  The  Homily — the  two  initial  letters  to  which 
show  Saint  Gregory  and  the  learned  Elizabeth — is  set  in 
double  column,  the  original  text  on  the  left  hand  in  Saxon 
types,  and  on  the  right  hand  the  English  translation  in 
roman  types.  Notes  run  the  full  measure  of  the  page,  set  in 
small  roman  letter  with  proper  names  in  italic;  for  in  almost 
all  books  of  this  period,  proper  names  were  picked  out  in 
italic  if  the  text  was  roman,  in  roman  if  the  text  was  italic. 
A  Latin  version,  an  appendix,  notes,  etc.,  close  a  good-look- 
ing volume.  Its  feature — from   a  printer's  standpoint — 


12  An  Hom 

gejpeaxo&e:-  Dpe^opiuj- 
J>a  beheol5  J)spa  cnapena 
plite  •]  beppan  op  hpil- 
cepe^cobe  hi  ^ebpohce 
j'^pon.  )>aj-a5ehim  man 
"f  hi  op  enjla  lanibe  ps- 
pon  •]  ■;^  |)apa  ^eobe  men- 
iiifc  j-fa  phcig  j>2£j\e'-- 
Gpt;  ])a  Gpe^opiup  be- 
ppan hps^ep  J)£]-  lanbep 
pole  Cpiften  ^:£T[\e  ])e  hx- 
'Sene  •,  him  man  psbe  ;^ 
hi  hea^ene  p^pon.  Dpe- 
gopiu)-  ])a  op  inejjeap- 
&pe  heopcan  lanjpume 
Xiccetun^eteah  -]  cps^. 
'  f^e  la  pa.  ;^  ppa  fx- 
^pep  hipep  men  ""pynbon 
jjam  ppeapcan  People 
unbep  'Seob&e  >  Gpt; 
fa  Ifpe^opiup  beppan 
hu  ]>2pe  J>eo&e  nama 
psepe  j?e  hi  opcumon. 
him  p^ep  ^eanbpypb 
JcEt  hi  T^^ngle  ^enemn- 
6e  pepon  :•  Da  c^x% 
he  pihclice  hi   pynbon 


ILY    ON    THE 

Heads  of  Hair.  And  Gre- 
gory ^  when  he  faw  the 
Beauty  of  the  Young  Men, 
enquired  from  what  Coun- 
try they  were  brought,  and 
the  Men  faid  from  England-^ 
and  that  all  the  Men  in 
that  Nation  were  as  beau- 
tiful. Then  Gregory  asked 
them  whether  the  Men  of 
that  Land  were  Chriftians, 
or  Heathens  ^  and  the  Men 
faid  unto  him  they  were 
Heathens.  Gregory  then 
fetching  a  long  Sigh  from 
the  very  bottom  of  his 
Heart ,  faid ,  Alas !  alas ! 
that  Men  of  fo  fair  a  Com- 
plexion fhould  be  fubjefl  to 
the  Prince  of  Darknefs.  Af- 
ter that  Gregory  enquired 
hov/  they  call'd  the  Nation 
from  whence  they  came. 
To  which  he  was  anfwer'd, 
that  they  were  called  J>jgk 
[that  is,  Englifi:']  Then 
faid  he,  rightly  they  arc 


'Caicll  a  toa^  is  in  common  ufe  to  this  day  in  the  North,  to 
exprefs  their  Grief,  or  Surprize. 

*"  Speapran  beople.    Word  for  word  the  BlacI^  Devil  \  the 
^axon  Phrafe  for  the  Prince  of  Darknefs. 


288.  Page  of  Homily:  Boxvyer^  London^  1709 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  135 

is  that  the  columns  "of  Saxon  and  roman  vary  in  width, 
so  that  each  version  ends  a  page  approximately  at  the  same 
word  {Jig-  288).  This  required,  for  every  page,  exact  cal- 
culation in  order  to  know  what  measure  for  each  version 
would  accomplish  it.  It  is  done  so  well,  that  it  often  appears 
not  to  have  been  done  at  all !  ^ 

One  of  the  fine  folios  of  the  early  eighteenth  century,  pub- 
hshed  at  London  by  Jacob  Tonson  in  1712,  is  a  Latin  edi- 
tion of  the  works  of  Caesar — C  Julii  Caesaris  quae  extant  — 
annotated  by  Samuel  Clarke.  The  title-page  with  its  spaced 
capitals,  especially  the  Hnes  of  spaced  italic  capitals,^  and 
the  absence  of  rubrication  and  surrounding  rules,  somewhat 
prefigures  Baskerville's  title-pages.  After  the  preliminary 
matter,  the  Commentaries  begin,  set  in  fine  great  primer  old 
style  types  very  generously  leaded,  notes  being  set  mostly 
in  small  italic  in  the  ample  margins  (Jig.  289).  It  is  illus- 
trated with  full-page  copper-plates,  and  the  magnificent 
head-pieces,  tail-pieces,  and  initial  letters  are  also  engraved. 
Among  other  luxuriously  printed  editions  with  the  Ton- 
son  imprint  were  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  1717,  the  splendid 
Prior's  Poems  in  folio  of  1718,  Addison's  JVorks,  1721,  a  fine 
quarto  Don  Quixote  in  Spanish,  1738,  and  a  folio  Pope. 

Full-bodied  editions  such  as  the  Theological  PTorks  of  the 
Rev,  Mr.  Charles  Leslie,  published  by  subscription  in  two 

*  A  few  years  after  this  book  was  printed,  its  Anglo-Saxon  types  were  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  New  Anglo-Saxon  fonts,  much  more  picturesque  than  those 
of  the  Homily,  were  cut  for  Miss  Elstob's  Anglo-Saxon  Grammar,  which 
appeared  in  1715.  These  were  subsequently  given  by  Bowyer  the  younger 
to  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  where  they  still  are.  The  1743  edition  of 
Junius's  Etymologicum  Anglicanum,  printed  at  the  Theatre,  Oxford — a  fine 
edition  —  may  be  looked  at  for  its  use  of  the  Junius  Anglo-Saxon  and  other 
northern  types. 

'  The  theory  in  using  these  spaced  capitals  was  that  capitals  spaced  dignified 
the  important  word  of  a  title,  and  that  such  a  word  should  fill  the  measure 
of  the  page.  Hence  the  printer  spaced  such  lines  until  tlie  letters  appeared 
(as  De  Vinne  says)  "dislocated  by  explosion." 


136  PRINTING  TYPES 

volumes  folio,  by  William  Bowyer  the  elder  in  1721,  show 
a  more  modern  point  of  view  in  book-making — old-fash- 
ioned, but  not  archaic.  It  is  printed  from  old  style  types, 
no  doubt  Dutch,  and  the  displayed  half-titles  and  headings 
are  interesting  pieces  of  eighteenth  century  composition.  Its 
head  and  tail-pieces  are  splendid  examples  of  printer's  orna- 
ments of  that  epoch;  and  the  head-bands  of  type  "flowers" 
are  handsome  and  cleverly  managed.  Leslie  was  a  non- 
juror, and  for  some  years  Anglican  chaplain  to  the  Pre- 
tender at  Rome,  and  his  works  were  naturally  printed  by 
Bowyer,  who  was  a  non -juror  himself.  Pope's  translation 
of  Homer's  //?W  (London,  1715),  printed  by  Bowyer — for 
Lintot — in  three  imposing  folio  volumes,  is  a  good  exam- 
ple of  another  luxurious  contemporary  edition.  The  Works 
of  Alexander  Pope^  also  printed  by  Bowyer  (London,  1717), 
is  another  instructive  piece  of  type-setting.  It  is  composed 
throughout  in  old  style  roman  and  italic,  of  a  Dutch  cut.  Its 
enormously  spaced  half-titles,  the  running-titles  in  spaced 
italic  capitals,  and  its  open  composition  are  all  characteris- 
tic of  early  eighteenth  century  work. 

But  Bowyer's  greatest  achievement  was  the  three  volume 
folio  edition  of  Selden's  Opera ^  collected  by  Dr.  David  Wil- 
kins,  which  was  begun  in  1722  and  brought  out  in  1726. 
This  was  undertaken  for  a  number  of  London  publishers 
and  issued  by  subscription.  Bowyer  printed  the  first  vol- 
ume in  two  parts,  the  succeeding  volumes  (each  in  two 
parts  also)  being  printed  by  S.  Palmer  and  T.  Wood.  Wil- 
liam Caslon's  English  types  were  first  used  for  the  body  of 
this  book.  To  the  student  who  has  been  looking  at  earlier 
English  books  printed  with  Dutch  fonts,  the  pages  of  the 
Selden  are  a  relief  to  the  eye — they  are  so  easy  to  read,  so 
clear  and  beautiful.  In  Volume  I  the  dedication  displays  a 
large  size  of  roman  type ;  the  Address  to  the  Reader  is  com- 


sf 

^3 


?3 


^ 


S 
« 

S 

^ 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  137 

posed  in  flowing  italic;  the  Life  of  Selden  in  great  primer 
roman.  The  various  "works,"  save  for  their  prefaces,  are 
arranged  in  double  column,  each  column  having  a  folio  of 
its  own.  Here  Caslon's  English  roman  is  used,  and  he  also 
cut  the  Hebrew  types  for  this  edition.  Arabic,  Greek,  and 
black-letter  also  occur  in  the  text  {Jig.  290).  Here  and  there 
rubrication  is  skilfully  introduced,  and  there  is  much  clever 
type-setting  throughout  the  entire  work.  The  third  volume 
contains  Selden's  English  tracts,  and  here  it  is  interesting 
to  compare  the  type  set  in  English  with  its  appearance 
in  the  Latin  volumes.  Numerous  half-titles,  etc.,  make  the 
whole  work  a  wonderful  "style-book"  for  displayed  mat- 
ter set  in  old  style  types — though  I  do  not  think  that  the 
larger  types  are  Caslon's.  Finally,  some  of  the  beautiful  tail- 
pieces used  in  the  Leslie  are  introduced,  with  others  still 
more  elaborate.  It  is  a  stupendous  piece  of  work,  and  shows 
Bowyer's  sure  taste  in  planning  the  style  of  the  volumes, 
and  in  utilizing  Caslon's  skill  for  their  type.  Bowyer's  better- 
known  son,  William,  "the  learned  printer"  (whose  mother 
was  the  daughter  of  a  printer  employed  on  Walton's  Poly- 
glot Bible),  assisted  him  in  correcting  and  arranging  the 
work.  The  second  and  third  volumes  were  probably  placed 
with  Palmer  and  Wood  so  that  all  the  volumes  might  ap- 
pear in  1726. 

In  discussing  eighteenth  century  English  types,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  law-books  were  still  usually  set  in  the 
traditional  English  black-letter — a  survival  of  the  lettrede 
forme  of  the  Norman  law-book.  Titles,  prefaces,  running- 
titles,  and  marginal  notes  in  such  works  were,  however, 
commonly  set  in  roman. 

In  1733-37,  a  book  appeared  in  London  which,  though 
not  printed  from  type,  had  some  influence  on  tj^pography 
— namely,  John  Pine's  memorable  Latin  edition  of  Horace. 


138  PRINTING  TYPES 

Pine,  who  was  an  engraver,  could  not  satisfy  himself  with 
current  letter-press  printing.  So  the  text  was  first  set  up  in 
type  and  an  impression  transferred  to  copper  and  then  en- 
graved, space  being  left  for  the  decorations.  Thus  the  whole 
book — a  very  exquisite  performance — was  printed  from 
copper  plates.  The  brilliancy  of  this  engraved  roman  text 
struck  a  new  note,  and  thus  Pine's  Horace  may  have  had 
a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  taste  for  more  "finished"  types 
which  waxed  as  the  century  waned.  In  that  connection  it 
is  mentioned  here  {fig-  291). 

Some  volumes  of  poems  brought  out  by  eminent  pub- 
lishers, and  in  their  day  considered  handsome  books,  are 
good  examples  of  later  work.  For  instance,  Poems  on  Several 
Occasions,  by  Mrs.  Mary  Barber — who,  it  is  pleasant  to 
know,  "was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  Women  that 
either  this  Age,  or  perhaps  any  other,  ever  produc'd,"  and 
who  succumbed  to  her  reputation  by  dying  at  the  age  of 
twenty-seven !  This  luxuriously  got  up  quarto  has  an  in- 
troduction by  Dean  Swift,  —  who,  it  is  said,  lost  Queen 
Anne's  favour  through  the  peremptory  tone  of  a  letter  de- 
manding her  patronage  for  the  book, — and  was  subscribed 
for  by  no  less  than  thirty-three  dukes  and  duchesses,  and 
a  multitude  of  less  titled  persons.  The  poems  are  set  in  an 
ample  old  style  roman  font,  widely  leaded,  and  the  proper 
names,  or  most  important  words,  are  usually  displayed  in 
capitals  and  small  capitals,  instead  of  italic — though  impor- 
tant words  in  titles  to  the  poems,  which  are  set  in  large 
Dutch  italic,  are  "picked  out"  in  roman.  The  book,  over- 
loaded with  rather  ill-printed  head  and  tail-pieces,  is  an 
ambitious  performance  and  a  characteristic  eighteenth  cen- 
tury "Table-book."  It  was  printed  for  the  London  pub- 
lisher, Rivington,  in  1734. 

John  Armstrong's  The  Art  of  Preserving  Health,  printed 


5i    c/> 


5  i^l-H 


5-^« 


<L> 


O    <^    C 

~i  :r:  _w 


5^ 


^  a 


1^ 


<L> 


<L> 

> 

-a 
o 

3 


G  'r;    rj    O    :3    rt 

•:«  3  g  cj  22  c/2 


P    <D 


^v^ 

fe  .^ 


a  a 


O 


"U 


(U 


c-  9-x 


53  v??  ^  ^ 


o 

c  ^  ^     ^ 
CI.  <u  i:^  •!-•  -=3 


3    C- 


^  •'■^*  s 


I- 


5  ^ 


<i» 


.9-x 

c/,^ 


CJ    o    3"§" 


(L> 


<L> 


^ 


"^ 


55         -G  Q 

^  S  ^ 


cti 


Sri    ^ 


4-.      «« 

o 

3 


n 


%^3  iv-  §J 


^^.- 


«b 


3l:e'^ 
r.  <i>  ^ 


"CO 


"^^  ^     3 


^a 


a  . 

3  .ti 


d    (L) 


«2  rJ 
3  t-; 
ejus 


ti    3 


(J 

a 

3 
C3 

'3 


^,5 


^  ^ 


o  ,^  - 


>    3 


O         »^     3 


C.^ 


r3 


3 


S  5  o 

5  2^ 


c  'O  -a  r^   r* 

n    O    O    S:    fc 

at-.    3    ;2  -Ns 


U 

s 

-o 
n 

<u 

3 
c« 

;-■ 

.  a 

^    ^    G 

n^ 
n  ^ 


"S     <2> 


^ 


si 


b/Doj 


n3 

C4 


-a 

a 

3 


CO 

3 
•^ 

3 

o 


o 


rt  .S:^  -^ 


G 


r: 
h 

n  _ 


eg 


^ 


^^ 


3 
(J 

c  3 

4->    •  — 


r3     S 


j::  r 


K    ^=5    ^.   .CO 


S^^. 


n  p  f- 


<;^  •  — 


N 


to 

O 
o 

-a 

3 


3    % 


n 

n 

r 


Ho 


O 

a 

3 


"3     CO 


J§    o  '-J 


o 
o 

X 


a^-n 


Cb 


Ox       « 


O 


,3 


n 


3 
ri 
U 


'  »>» 


^      !^  •^r■^       G 


n 


Oh  <U 

3-G 

4-t 

G    c/) 
n    o 

^  -a 
<y  3 

3 

a 
G  a 

O  "^ 
G    ,. 


<u 


U     (U 


O 

o 

3 
"— > 

<L> 

G 

'a 

<L» 

> 


3 


to 

<L> 


3^-a^ 

G  3  ^ 
G  G  CO 
rJ    3 

3     4-'  ^        _ 

=  3  L  n  i^  n  ,§  ■C' j.p,«s' 


«^  ^  a  <i^  P 


•  »>»  ^ 

^<2 


3    O 


St 


^ 


CT^ 


i« 


4^    ♦ 


t:  3 

G    Gey 

"^^^ 

G  .2 


a 
a 


U 


CD 


a 
^ 


d 

en 


Carminvm  Liber  I 


ODE  XXIX. 

Ad   Iccivm. 

CCI,  beatis  nunc  Arabum  invides 
Gazis  J  et  acrem  militiam  paras 
Non  ante  devidis  Sabaeae 
Regibus ;  horribilique  Medo 


Nedtis  catenas,  quae  tibi  virginum, 
Sponfo  necato,  barbara  ferviet  ? 
Puer  quisexaulacapillis 

Ad  cyathiim  ftatuetur  wn^is, 
Dodus  fagittas  tendere  Serica.s 
Arcii  paterno :  quis  neget  ardiiis 
Pronos  relabi  pofTe  rivos 

Montibus,  et  Tiberim  revertij 
Cum  til  coemtos  undique  nobiles 
Libros  Panaeti,  Socraticam  et  domum 
Mutare  loricis  Ibais, 

Pollicitus  meliora,  tendis? 


lO 


^b 


291.  Engraved  Text  of  Pine's  Horace,  London,  1733-37 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  139 

for  A.  Millar  in  1744,  was  a  book  meant  to  be  smart  and 
luxurious.  In  spite  of  a  very  eighteenth  century  title-page, 
with  capitals  so  spaced  as  to  make  one  feel  cross-eyed, 
its  ornamentation  is  restricted  almost  entirely  to  a  few  tail- 
pieces. The  volume  shows  a  certain  progression,  too,  be- 
cause proper  names  are  set  in  the  scune  letter  as  the  text. 
The  large  type  used  (Caslon,  apparently)  is  much  leaded, 
and  the  margins  are  generous.  The  general  effect,  though 
still  very  old-fashioned,  is  handsome  —  a  sort  of  Baskerville 
book  set  in  Caslon,  with  "current"  press  work.  The  orna- 
ments used  make  me  think  it  was  printed  by  Bowyer. 
Franklin  reprinted  this  volume  in  Philadelphia  in  the  year 
of  its  publication. 

Sir  Thomas  Hanmer's  edition  of  Shakespeare  was  the 
first  in  which  much  pains  were  taken  to  make  a  handsome 
piece  of  printing.  Hanmer,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, a  friend  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  and  a  man  of  consid- 
erable literary  achievement,  brought  out  the  Works  in  a  six 
volume  edition  in  1744,  though  his  name  did  not  appear 
in  it.  It  was  printed  "at  the  Theatre  at  Oxford,"  and  was 
"adorned  with  sculptures  designed  and  executed  by  the 
best  hands."  This  first  edition  was  bought  up  on  publica- 
tion, and  the  price  of  copies  greatly  advanced.  It  produced, 
therefore,  an  effect  in  its  day.  Italic  and  roman  "Fell"  tj^^pes 
are  used  for  the  two  prefaces,  but  that  used  for  the  plays 
is  a  lighter  old  style  font,  composed  in  a  somewhat  modern 
manner  ^fig.  292).  What  strikes  us  about  the  edition  now 
is  a  certain  similarity  in  composition  to  some  of  Basker- 
ville's  work;  though  it  was  printed  thirteen  years  before 
Baskerville's  first  book  (the  Virgil)  was  published.  This  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  arrangement  of  the  title-page,  half-titles, 
etc.,  with  their  spaced  capitals,  the  manner  of  using  orna- 
mental bands  of  "flowers,"  etc.  ^fig.  293). 


140  PRINTING  TYPES 

In  1753,  a  famous  illustrated  book  appeared — Designs  by 
Mr.  R.  Bentley  for  Six  Poems  by  Mr.  T.  Gray,  printed  for 
R.  Dodsley,  London.  It  was  superintended  with  great  care, 
and  Bentley's  charming  decorations  are  much  discussed  in 
Horace  Walpole's  letters.  To  pad  out  the  book,  the  text  is 
printed  only  on  one  side  of  a  leaf :  a  trick  considered  mod- 
ern, but  really  old.  The  typography  is  commonplace — a 
large  Caslon  character,  much  leaded,  and  not  well  printed. 
A  book  was  still  appraised,  as  it  had  been  a  hundred  years 
earlier,  by  the  number  of  its  copper-plate  illustrations. 

Walpole's  press  at  Strawberry  Hill  employed  old  style 
types  for  its  work  —  probably  Caslon's — and  among  its 
rather  indifferent  printing,  the  Strawberry  Hill  Lucan  is 
worthy  of  moderate  praise. 

Samuel  Johnson's  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language  is 
mostly  remembered  nowadays,  by  the  general  reader,  as 
the  book  Becky  Sharp  flung  back  at  Miss  Jemima  Pinker- 
ton —  not,  fortunately,  in  its  original  two  volume  folio  form 
— or  because  of  Johnson's  famous  letter  to  Lord  Chester- 
field, It  was  printed  by  William  Strahan  in  1755,  in  a  mo- 
notonous old  style  type,  in  size  rather  small  for  the  folio 
double-column  pages.  The  title-page,  in  its  leaded  lines  of 
small  spaced  capitals,  shows  a  modern  tendency  toward 
light  effects.  In  the  preface,  blank  lines  between  paragraphs 
also  exhibit  a  new  detail  of  composition,  much  in  favour  as 
the  century  went  on.  In  the  Dictionary  proper,  words  are 
set  in  capitals,  and  derivations  from  these  words  in  capitals 
and  small  capitals — e.g.,  DIVULGE,  Divulger.  These 
pages  of  mild  colour  and  easy  air  seem  old-fashioned  to  us 
now,  but  not  antique. 

I  have  already  said  that  editions  of  the  same  book  printed 
at  different  dates,  but  in  the  same  country,  are  a  lesson  in 
the  history  of  national  printing-styles ;  while  books  like  the 


(J 


g  ^ 

O  .       r\ 

^    d) 

P^ 

(L)   '-t-i 
>     <U 

*^    ;-. 

<U     G    +3 

(L)     CJ 

CO       r-l 

g-S.s 
c  y   3 

<Q 

d)    >    <u 

-^  ^  -^ 


G 


C/3 


■a 


<1 


w 


o 

•  »-( 
O 

.3 


P 

p— < 

G    ^ 


Q 


(J 

a 
.   ♦-< 

o  „^ 

^  2 


bJD 


^ 


w 


s 

•  U    G 
o3     (U 


Q 


o    ^^ 

iJ     <1J     O 


G 

B 


G  '-^ 


Oh  G    G 


>> 


^  --  ffi  -5  ^ 

•     S     G     ^ 

O 


c3 


O 


C  -d  ^ 


G 


I 

CO 


:5^ 


5 


Is. 


THE 


WORKS 


O  F 


MR  WILLIAM  SHAKESPEAR. 


VOLUME    the    FIRST. 

CONSISTING    OF 

CO      M      E      D      I 


OXFORD: 
PRINTED      AT     THE     THEATRE. 

MDCCXLHI. 

293.  Bastard  Title-page  of  Hanmer's  Shakespeare  {reduced) 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  141 

Latin  classics,  common  to  all  countries,  show  how  different 
nationalities  treated  the  same  problem.  The  same  class  of 
book  can  also  be  compared  in  this  way:  books  on  astron- 
omy, geometry,  botany,  architecture — and  dictionaries.  For 
instance,  the  earliest  English  vocabularies  or  dictionaries 
were  printed  in  black-letter,  both  word  and  definition.  Many 
seventeenth,  and  even  some  eighteenth  century  English  dic- 
tionaries printed  the  words  defined  in  black-letter,  with  defi- 
nitions in  italic.  In  Florio's  New  World  of  Words  oi  1611, 
italic  was  used  for  the  definitions,  but  the  words  were  set 
in  roman.  In  the  mid-eighteenth  century,  as  in  Johnson's 
Dictionary^  words  were  set  in  capitals  or  in  capitals  and 
small  capitals,  with  definitions  in  roman  lower-case.  Later 
on,  the  words  defined  were  almost  always  set  in  capitals, 
and  this  is  continued,  in  such  dictionaries  as  Webster's 
or  Worcester's,  to  our  own  day.  In  the  Century  Dictionary, 
and  in  that  wonderful  piece  of  work,  the  New  English 
Dictionary,  printed  at  the  University  Press,  Oxford,  a  bold- 
face upper  and  lower-case  roman  letter  has  been  employed 
to  pick  out  the  "word"  from  the  text.  This  is,  in  a  way,  a 
return  to  the  black-letter  of  the  earliest  period.  Diction- 
aries being  popular  books,  and  for  that  reason  employing 
types  familiar  and  easy  for  the  eye  to  seize  quickly,  thus 
show,  if  examined  chronologically,  (l)  what  types  were  the 
most  familiar  at  a  particular  epoch,  and  (2)  the  date  when 
they  became  obsolete. 

I  have  not  mentioned  Baskerville's  work  here,  because 
the  types  he  designed  fall  into  a  class  by  themselves,  and 
because  two  or  three  of  his  editions  have  been  already 
described.  But  the  Baskerville  manner  was  in  full  swing 
at  the  time  that  Caslon's  old  style  types  had  their  vogue. 
"Fashionable"  English  printing  had  become  very  open  and 
light  in  effect  by  the  last  of  the  century  —  partly,  I  dare  say, 


142  PRINTING  TYPES 

through  Baskerville's  influence.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds'  Dis- 
course at  the  Opening  of  the  Royal  Academy  in  January, 
1769,  though  printed  from  old  style  type,  by  its  arrange- 
ment has  an  effect  entirely  different  from  the  printing  of 
fifty  years  earlier.  A  collection  of  these  addresses  delivered  by 
Reynolds  between  1769  and  1783,  some  of  them  the  work 
of  Cadell,  printer  to  the  Academy,  is  (like  similar  Spanish 
occasional  addresses  that  have  been  mentioned)  illuminat- 
ing because  they  were  printed  for  a  distinguished  body  of 
men,  and  represent  the  best  taste  of  the  day  ^fig-  294).  The 
excessively  spaced  letters  of  the  title-page,  the  large  folios 
in  spaced  brackets,  the  open  leading,  the  blank  spaces  be- 
tween paragraphs,  and  the  wide  margins,  show  a  style  of 
work  which — handsome  in  quartos  like  these — became 
very  thin  and  faded  in  smaller  books  which  copied  them. 

Then  again,  a  new  influence  in  typography  was  that  of 
the  Foulis  brothers  (of  whom  I  have  spoken),  printers  to  the 
University  of  Glasgow  since  1743,  who  were  employing 
Wilson's  lighter  transitional  types,  and  producing  books 
which  showed  a  new  feeling  in  English  printing.  Their 
smaller yor/72a^5,  in  which  the  classics  were  issued,  are  more 
characteristic  of  their  work,  or  the  faults  of  their  work,  than 
the  folios. 

A  "Foulis  edition"  of  the  best  sort  is  Andrew  Foulis's 
Poetical  Works  of  Alexander  Pope  (1785),  in  three  folio  vol- 
umes. The  effect  of  the  pages  of  the  poems  is  very  noble 
and  most  readable,  owing  to  the  large  size  of  fine  type  in 
which  the  text  is  set.  The  smaller  types  used  for  the  con- 
tents, advertisements,  quoted  poetry,  etc.,  become,  as  they 
descend  in  size,  gray  and  monotonous,  without  the  colour  of 
Caslon's  or  the  clearness  of  Baskerville's  small  types.  But 
the  eflrect,as  a  whole,  is  exceedingly  distinguished  ^fig.  295). 
Among  the  most  celebrated  Foulis  editions  in  large  format 


I  s  c  o 


S    E« 


GENTLEMEN, 

THE  honor  which  the  Arts 
acquire  by  being  permitted 
to  take  poffeflion  of  this 
noble  habitation,  is  one  of  the  mofl  confiderable  of  the 
many  inftances  we  have  received  of  his  Majesty's 
protedtion ;  and  the  ftrongefi:  proof  of  his  defire  to  make 
the  Academy  refpedable. 

Nothing  has  been  left  undone  that  might  contribute 
to  excite  our  purfuit,  or  to  reward  our  attainments.     We 

B  have 


294.  Page  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds'  Royal  Academy  Discourse 
Cadell^  London^  1781  {j-educed) 


f 

<u 
C 

•  »-« 

QJ 
+-> 

<^ 

$^ 

o 

(L) 

O 


m 
O 


4-J 


o 

;-< 

X 

> 
o 

•  1— ( 

> 


O 


^      ^ 


J3 
O 


QJ 


(D 


CO 
•  t-H 

13 


CD 

•  1— < 

CJ 
O 


CO 


o 

biD 

a 

■  CO 

o 


C/3 
•  1— t 

r! 


o 

Ph 

o 

> 

•  1—1 

bO 

CO 

dJ 

a* 

C/5 


O 

CJ 

^  r-j 
CJ 

CJ 

H 


cy5 

CJ 

s 

o 

4-» 

nd 

(U 

•  1— ( 

CJ 
CJ 

C/5 


O 

Q 

o 
+-» 

CJ 


O 


O 

> 

CJ 


a 

o 

o 

HI 


CD 


jj      :^ 


;:3 

'El 

ci 

'^ 
o 

O 


4-> 


o 
^      d 

4-' 

a 
dj 

O 


o 


Oi 
C! 


C 

d 

4-* 

d 

Oh 
u 


o 

C 

o 


<L) 


2     S 


o 


PQ 


o 
bO 

u 

(U 

4-< 

QJ 

d 

< 


00 


fi: 


CT) 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  143 

are  a  Callimachus  of  1755,  the  Horace  of  1756,  the  monu- 
mental Greek  Iliad  and  Odyssey^  in  four  volumes,  printed 
between  1756  and  1758,  and  a  Paradise  Lost  issued  in  1770. 
For  Gray's  Poems  (1768)  in  quarto,  Wilson  cut  a  special 
font  of  double  pica  roman.  Of  the  Foulis  classics  in  small 
format^  the  16mo  edition  of  Aeschylus  (l746)  or  Aristoph- 
anes (1755)  in  Greek  and  Latin,  and  the  Juvenal  of  1750 
in  16mo,  may  be  cited.  The  12mo  Latin  Horace  of  1760 
(a  fourth  edition)  is  better.  It  is  a  very  well-bred  little  book 
— but,  like  many  other  well-bred  things,  rather  colourless. 
Types  such  as  it  is  set  in  had  to  be  cleverly  handled  to  look 
well  —  and  this  is  a  good  example  of  Foulis's  clever  han- 
dling. The  Letters  of  CJiarlotte^  printed  for  Cadell  in  1786 
{Jig.'296)^  or  the  16mo  edition  of  Thomson's  *S'm507z^,  printed 
by  Strahan  in  1788  for  Rivington  and  others,  was  the  sort 
of  book  Fouhs  made  popular — pretty,  but  "faded."  Such 
feeble  types  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  heavy  fonts  of  Thorne 
early  in  the  next  century.  Something  had  to  be  done,  and 
"  fat  blacks"  w^ere  administered  to  fainting  ladies  like  Char- 
lotte, as  a  sort  of  rough-and-ready  first  aid  to  the  injured. 
The  books  illustrated  by  Bewick  caused  the  introduction 
of  more  modelled  and  brilliant  type-forms.  Bewick's  cuts 
from  the  first  demanded  such  types.  The  demand  was  not 
met  by  those  used  in  his  Quadrupeds  of  1790  or  his  British 
Birds  of  1797.  These  books,  printed  at  Newcastle,  are  set 
in  a  very  poor  form  of  letter — either  Wilson's  or  an  old 
style  type  much  whittled  down  from  its  first  estate.  It  was 
Bulmer  who  realized  the  kind  of  typography  that  Bewick's 
cuts  called  for;  and  when  he  produced  his  new  types,  it 
must  have  been  a  revelation  to  the  public  of  that  day;  in 
fact,  it  was !  But  before  describing  the  Bewick  books  printed 
at  the  Shakspeare  Press  by  Bulmer,  there  are  two  of  its 
earlier  books  which  must  be  mentioned. 


144  PRINTING  TYPES 

The  "Boydell  Shakspeare,"  which  the  Shakspeare  Press 
was  established  to  print,  is  its  most  famous  performance. 
Its  Advertisement,  written  by  Nicol,  tells  us  that  "  while 
foreign  nations  were  publishing  splendid  editions  of  their 
favourite  authors,  we  in  this  country  contented  ourselves 
with  such  editions  of  ours  as  were  merely  useful."  This 
work  was  meant  to  be  a  magnificent  national  edition,  in 
which  splendour  of  production  was  to  go  hand  in  hand  with 
correctness  of  text."  With  regard  to  the  Typographical  part 
of  the  work,"  Nicol  says,  "the  state  of  printing  in  England, 
when  it  was  first  undertaken  [l786],  was  such  that  it  was 
found  necessary  to  establish  a  printing-house  on  purpose 
to  print  the  work ;  a  foundry  to  cast  the  types ;  and  even  a 
manufactory  to  make  the  ink.^  How  much  the  art  of  print- 
ing has  improved  since  that  period  the  Public  can  best 
judge."  This  folio  edition  in  nine  volumes,  with  its  accom- 
panying plates,  was  "printed  by  W.  Buhner  and  Company 
for  John  and  Josiah  Boydell,  George  and  W.  Nicol,  from 
the  types  of  W.  Martin,"  and  was  finally  pubHshed  in  1802, 
though  the  first  volume  appeared  in  1792"  {Jig.  297).  The 
folio  edition  of  Milton's  Poetical  Works.,  illustrated  by  West- 

*  The  pure  black  ink  was  prepared  from  material  supplied  to  Bulmer  by 
Baskerville's  old  foreman,  Robert  Martin,  and  was  probably  made  from  a 
recipe  similar  to  that  employed  by  Baskerville. 

'  Dibdin  tells  us  how  Nicol  contrived  "to  silence  some  connoisseurs  of  Print- 
ing, who,  upon  seeing  the  productions  of  the  Shakspeai-e  Press,  were  con- 
stantly saying '  This  is  very  well,  but  what  is  this  to  the  Printing  of  Bodoni  ? ' 
...  A  specimen  sheet  of  a  pretended  edition  of  Cicero  was  set  up  with  tlie 
Shakspeare  types,  of  the  size  of  Bodoni's  publications.  When  this  specimen 
was  shewn  to  the  same  connoisseurs,  they  exclaimed,  'To  what  degree  of 
perfection  does  tliis  man  mean  to  carry  the  art  of  Printing !  Why  this  sur- 
passes all  his  former  excellence ! '  And  tlaey  were  all  veiy  anxious  for  Mr.  N. 
to  procure  them  copies  of  the  work.  To  this  Mr.  N.  replied,  'that  Mr.  Bo- 
doni had  an  agent  in  town ;  and  if  they  would  turn  to  the  bottom  of  the  last 
page  of  the  specimen  they  would  find  his  address  '  —  which  they  found  as 
follows  — '  f  F.  Bulmer  and  Co.  Shakspeare  Press  \'" 


THE 


LETTERS 


o    ? 


C  H  A  R  L  0  TT  E, 


DURING    HER     CONNEXION     "WITH. 


W     E     R     T     E     R. 


GraxAa  fola  difu  ne  vaglia,  Irtanti 
Che  piu  '/  df/Io  d'amore  al cor  s'invecchi 


VOL.      I. 


LOUDON: 


PRINTED     FOR     T.     CADELL,      IN     THE     STRAND. 


MjDCC,LXXXVIi 


296.  Title-page  of  Letters  of  Charlotte^  London^  1786 


CO 

O 

K 

CO 

< 

o 

Q 


CO 

a 


<D      O 


Cj  O 

%  ^ 

>  p 

^  t— t 

O  _H 
CO 

B  ^ 

«  8 

CO  O 


CO 


O 


>^ 


c5 


fl 
^ 


O 


a 

CO 


;5 

o 

;>^ 

o 

CO 


bC 
O 

O 

CO 


CU 


O 
CJ 

CJ 
CD 


<U 

o 


CO 


5-( 
O 


S  ^  -5 


CT5 


o; 


<  o 


^    ^ 


o 

CO 


H^ 


CO 
<U 


c^ 


$-1 

<3J 


C3 


<U 
> 


o 

CO 

CJ 


o 

I— I 

?^ 

J— I 

o 


Ph 


o 

00 


13 


S 

« 

^ 

t^ 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  145 

all,  also  printed  by  Bulmer  for  the  Boj^dells  in  1794-97,  is 
another  wonderful  production — in  simplicity  of  arrange- 
ment, in  typography,  and  in  presswork.  For  pure  typogra- 
phy is  almost  wholly  relied  on  for  effect,  in  both  these  books, 
and  the  reliance  is  justified.  Martin's  roman  types  are  very 
handsome,  very  clear — and  very  modern.  His  italic  is  a 
little  too  calligraphic ;  the  italic  capitals  in  particular  show 
Baskerville's  influence  and  distract  the  eye.  But  the  edi- 
tions evidently  turned  out  what  they  were  meant  to  be ;  and 
only  a  printer  knows  all  that  this  implies!  No  description, 
however,  gives  any  idea  of  the  change  of  taste  in  English 
printing  which  these  books  exemplified. 

The  magnificent  letter-press  of  Chamberlaine's  Imita- 
tions of  Original  Drawings  by  Hans  Holbein^  being  Portraits 
of  Illustrious  Persons  in  the  Court  of  Henry  VI  11^  printed 
by  Bulmer  in  1792,  may  be  consulted  by  those  tempted  to 
behttle  the  work  of  this  school.  A  more  intimate  and  agree- 
able book  is  the  charming  edition  of  Poems  by  Goldsmith  and 
Parnell,  printed  by  Bulmer  in  1795.  This  was  the  first  really 
finely  printed  book  illustrated  by  the  Bewicks.  In  the  inter- 
esting Advertisement  Bulmer  says:  "To  raise  the  Art  of 
Printing  in  this  country  from  the  neglected  state  in  which  it 
had  long  been  suffered  to  continue,  and  to  remove  the  oppro- 
brium which  had  but  too  justly  been  attached  to  the  late 
productions  of  the  English  press,  much  has  been  done 
within  the  last  few  years ;  and  the  warm  emulation  which 
has  discovered  itself  amongst  the  Printers  of  the  present 
day,  as  well  in  the  remote  parts  of  the  kingdom  as  in  the 
metropolis,  has  been  highly  patronized  by  the  public  in  gen- 
eral. The  present  volume,  in  addition  to  the  Shakspeare, 
the  Milton,  and  many  other  valuable  works  of  elegance, 
which  have  already  been  given  to  the  world,  through  the 
medium  of  the  Shakspeare  Press,  are  particularly  meant  to 


146  PRINTING  TYPES 

combine  the  various  beauties  of  Printing,  Type-founding, 
Engraving,  and  Paper-making  ;  as  well  with  a  view  to  ascer- 
tain the  near  approach  to  perfection  which  those  arts  have 
attained  in  this  country,  as  to  invite  a  fair  competition  with 
the  best  Typographical  Productions  of  other  nations.  How 
far  the  different  Artists,  who  have  contributed  their  exer- 
tions to  this  great  object,  have  succeeded  in  the  attempt, 
the  Public  will  now  be  fully  able  to  judge.  Much  pains  have 
been  bestowed  on  the  present  publication,  to  render  it  a 
complete  Specimen  of  the  Arts  of  Type  and  Block-print- 
ing. The  whole  of  the  Types,  with  which  this  work  has 
been  printed,  are  executed  by  Mr.  William  Martin,  in  the 
house  of  my  friend  Mr.  George  Nicol,  whose  unceasing 
endeavours  to  improve  the  Art  of  Printing,  and  its  relative 
branches,  are  too  well  known  to  require  any  thing  to  be  said 
on  the  present  occasion ;  he  has  particularly  patronized  Mr. 
Martin,  a  very  ingenious  young  Artist,  who  has  resided  with 
him  seven  years,  and  who  is  at  this  time  forming  a  Foun- 
dry, by  which  he  will  shortly  be  enabled  to  offer  to  the  world 
a  Specimen  of  Types,  that  will  in  a  very  eminent  degree 
unite  utility,  elegance,  and  beauty.  The  ornaments  are  all 
engraved  on  blocks  of  wood,  by  two  of  my  earliest  acquaint- 
ances, Messrs.  Bewicks,  of  Newcastle  upon  Tyne  and  Lon- 
don,^ after  designs  made  from  the  most  interesting  pas- 
sages of  the  Poems  they  embellish.  They  have  been  exe- 
cuted with  great  care,  and  I  may  venture  to  say,  without 
being  supposed  to  be  influenced  by  ancient  friendship,  that 
they  form  the  most  extraordinary  effort  of  the  art  of  engrav- 
ing upon  wood  that  ever  was  produced  in  any  age,  or  any 
country.  Indeed  it  seems  almost  impossible  that  such  deli- 

'  Bulmer,  a  native  of  Newcastle,  was  from  youth  a  friend  of  Thomas  Bewick, 
to  whom  he  is  believed  to  have  suggested  lowering  the  surface  of  his  wood- 
blocks, to  give  a  lighter  impression  for  effects  of  distance. 


The  whole  of  the  Types,  with  which  this 
work  has  been  printed,  are  executed  by  Mr. 
Wilham  Martin,  in  the  house  of  my  friend 
Mr.  George  Nicol,  whose  unceasing  endeavours 
to  improve  the  Art  of  Printing,  and  its  relative 

The  Shakspeare  Printing  Office  owes  its 
origin  to  the  publication  of  that  great  Xational 
Edition  of  the  Works  of  Shakspeare^  which  you 
are  now,  so  much  to  the  honour  of  our  country , 
happily  conducting  toward  its  completion;  I 

298.   William  Martinis  Tzuo-line  Small  Pica  Roman  and  Italic 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1500-1800  147 

cate  effects  could  be  obtained  from  blocks  of  wood.^  Of  the 
Paper  it  is  only  necessary  to  say,  that  it  comes  from  the 
manufactory  of  Mr.  Whatman." 

Bulmer's  edition  of  William  Somervile's  Chase  (1796), 
a  companion  volume,  "presented  to  the  Patrons  of  Fine 
Printing"  (for  a  guinea),  is  another  delightful  book  in  much 
the  same  manner.  Martin's  types,  used  in  both  volumes,  are 
charming  transitional  roman- fonts,  both  delicate  and  spir- 
ited—  and  so  thoroughly  English  that  Bewick's  engravings 
seem  in  complete  harmony  with  them  {,jigs.  298,  299,  and 
300).  A  magnificent  work  that  employs  Martin's  types  is  the 
two- volume  History  of  the  River  Thames,  issued  in  folio  by 
William  Bulmer  &  Company  for  John  and  Josiah  Boydell 
in  1796.  The  title-page  bears  the  words,  "from  the  types 
of  W.  Martin."  Its  pages  of  large  roman  type,  beautifully 
set,  make  it  one  of  the  finest  books  Bulmer  ever  printed. 

The  printer  Bensley  also  issued  books  somewhat  in  this 
style,  which  are  examples  of  "the  latest  fashion"  in  print- 
ing. His  edition  of  Thomson's  Seasons,  with  plates  by  Bar- 
tolozzi,  issued  in  1797,  and  some  luxurious  books  published 
by  Stockdale,  are  good  specimens  of  his  earHer  work.  His 
composition  is  less  successful  than  Bulmer's,  and  his  better 
work,  which  I  shall  mention  later,  appears  to  have  been  done 
after  1800. 

Whatever  may  be  the  opinion  of  the  light,  open  types  and 
widely  spaced  and  leaded  pages  of  volumes  by  the  best 
printers  in  these  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  they 
seem  to  me  to  be  very  sincere  and  workmanlike  solutions 
of  problems  which  the  printer  worked  out  in  the  manner 
of  that  time.  Such  books  were  part  of  the  life  about  them. 

'  George  III  could  not  be  convinced  that  they  were  so  engraved,  and  insisted 
on  seeing  tlie  wood-blocks  before  he  would  believe  it. 


148  PRINTING  TYPES 

They  accorded  admirably  with  the  cool,  sedate  interiors  in 
which  they  were  housed.  It  was  printing  faithful  to  the  best 
standards  of  its  day,  and  because  of  this  I  think  it  will 
live.' 

'  See  list  of  nearly  fifty  books  printed  by  Bulmer  and  some  of  those  printed 
by  Bensley  before  1817  in  Dibdin's  Bibliografihkal  Decameron  (1817),  Vol. 
II,  pp.  384  et  seq.  Aids  to  the  student  will  be  found  in  the  Catalogue  of  an 
Exhibition  of  Books,  Broadsides,  Proclamations,  Portraits,  Autografihs,  etc., 
Illustratix'e  of  the  History  and  Progress  of  Pointing  and  Bookselling  in 
England,  1477-1800.  Held  at  Stationers'  Hall,  June,  1912,  by  the  Interna- 
tional Association  of  Antiquarian  Booksellers.  London,  1912  ;  and  also  in  the 
valuable  Catalogue  of  tlie  Caxton  Celebration  of  1877,  though  the  latter  is 
more  general  in  scope. 


Sweet  smiling  village,  loveliest  of  the  lawn, 
Thy  sports  are  fled,  and  all  thy  charms  withdrawn ; 
Amidst  thy  bowers  the  tyrant's  hand  is  seen, 
And  desolation  saddens  all  thy  green : 
One  only  master  grasps  the  whole  domain, 
And  half  a  tillage  stints  thy  smiling  plain. 

The  subject  proposed.  Address  to  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Prince.  The  origin  oj hunting.  The  rude  and  unpolished 
manner  of  the  Jirst  hunters.  Beasts  at  Jirst  hunted  Jor 
food  and  sacrifice.  The  grant  made  by  God  to  man  of  the 
beasts,  ire.  The  regular  manner  oJ  hunting  Jirst  brought 
into  this  island  by  the  Mormans.     The  best  hounds  and 

299.   William  Martin! s  Great  Primer  Roman  and  Italic 


1  HE  old  and  infirm  liave  at  least  this  privilege,  that  they  can  recall  to 
their  minds  those  scenes  of  joy  in  which  they  once  delighted,  and  rumi- 
nate over  their  past  pleasures,  with  a  satisfaction  almost  equal  to  the  first 
enjoyment;  for  those  ideas,  to  which  any  agreeable  sensation  is  annexed, 
are  easily  excited,  as  leaving  behind  them  the  most  strong  and  permanent 
impressions.  The  amusements  of  our  youth  are  the  boast  and  comfort  of 
our  declining  years.  The  ancients  carried  this  notion  even  yet  further, 
and  supposed  their  heroes,  in  the  Elysian  fields,  were  fond  of  the  very  same 

Whejv  the  exertions  of  an  Individual  to  improve  his  profession  are  crowned 
with  success,  it  is  certainly  the  highest  gratification  his  feelings  can  experience.  'The 
very  distinguished  approbation  that  attended  the  publication  of  the  ornamented  edition 
of  Goldsmith  s  Traveller,  Deserted  Village ,  and  ParneWs  Hermit,  which  luas 
last  year  offered  to  the  Public  as  a  Specimen  of  the  improved  State  of  Typography 
in  this  Country,  demands  my  warmest  acknowledgments;  and  is  no  less  satisfactory 
to  the  different  Artists  who  contributed  their  efforts  towards  the  completion  of  the 
work, 

300.  William  Martinis  Pica  Roman  and  Italic 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

TYPES  USED  IN  THE  AMERICAN   COLONIES,  AND  SOME 
EARLY  AMERICAN  SPECIMENS 

IN  connection  with  English  printing  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  something  must  be  said  about 
typography  in  the  EngHsh  Colonies  of  North  America, 
and  about  one  or  two  of  the  earliest  specimens  put  forth  by 
American  type-founders  and  printers. 

The  first  press  set  up  in  the  Colonies  was  established  at 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  Its  activities  extended  from 
1638  to  1692.  Its  equipment  consisted  of  a  printing-press 
and  type,  and  with  these  three  pressmen  and  a  printer  ar- 
rived in  the  summer  of  1638.  This  proto- typographer  of 
British  North  America  was  Stephen  Daye,  traditionally  con- 
nected with  the  famous  London  printer,  John  Day.  The 
foundation  of  this  press  was  the  work  of  Joseph  Glover, 
Rector  of  Sutton  in  Surrey.  Glover  dying  on  the  voyage  out, 
his  wife  set  up  the  press  at  Cambridge,  in  the  latter  months 
of  1638.  It  was  always  closely  associated  with  Har\'ard  Col- 
lege; and  among  its  most  celebrated  books  were  FAioi'slTidian 
Bible  and  the  Bai/  Psalm  Book}  The  ordinary  type  for  its  use 
was  all  procured  abroad,  probably  from  England  and  Hol- 
land. Its  work  came  to  an  end  in  1692,  Samuel  Green  being 
its  last  manager. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  typography  in  Europe  was 
upon  the  wane,  and  for  EngHsh  printing  the  Stuart  period, 
owing  to  restrictions  on  the  press,  was  a  miserable  epoch. 
To  make  life  beautiful  was  not  the  motive  which  led  to  the 
settlement  of  New  England:  and  the  promoters  of  the  Cam- 
bridge Press  merely  desired  that  spiritual  truth  should  be 

For  facsimiles  of  its  work  and  that  of  other  Massachusetts  printers,  see 
Littlefield's  Early  Massachusetts  Press,  1638-1711.  Boston,  1907.  2  vols. 


150  PRINTING  TYPES 

made  more  clear  through  its  publications.  The  typography 
of  its  books  was  as  unattractive  and  crabbed  as  the  mat- 
ter which  it  (perhaps  fittingly)  enshrined.  I  mention  this 
press,  therefore,  only  because  it  has  a  certain  historical  im- 
portance. 

Harvard  College  apparently  owned  no  types  after  Green's 
death  until  about  1718,  when  Thomas  Hollis  made  it  a  pres- 
ent of  fonts  of  long  primer  Hebrew  and  Greek  characters. 
The  latter  type  lay  idle  until  1761,  when  it  was  employed 
for  some  Greek  verse  occurring  in  a  congratulatory  address 
to  George  III  on  his  accession — Pietas  et  Gratulatio  Collegii 
Cantabrigiensis  apud  Novanglos.  This  was  its  first,  last,  and 
only  appearance ;  for  it  was  destroyed  in  a  fire  which  con- 
sumed the  first  College  Library  in  1764.^  But  the  Hebrew 
types,  being  at  the  time  in  use  in  Boston,  escaped;  whether 
they  still  survive,  I  know  not. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  typographical  material  in 
American  printing-houses — at  any  rate  before  the  Revolu- 
tion— was  almost  all  foreign.  Franklin  records  in  his  Auto- 
biography that  his  brother  James  secured  both  his  press 
and  type  from  England,  and  there  are  repeated  allusions  to 
the  necessity  of  procuring  such  materials  abroad  for  vari- 
ous Colonial  printing-offices.  When  manager  of  Keimer's 
press  in  Philadelphia,  Franklin  writes:  "Our  printing-house 
often  wanted  sorts,  and  there  was  no  letter-founder  in  Amer- 
ica ;  I  had  seen  types  cast  at  James's  in  London,  but  with- 
out much  attention  to  the  manner;  however,  I  now  con- 

*  Thomas's  History  of  Printing,  Worcester,  1810,  Vol.  I,  pp.  251  et  seq.  In 
the  broadside  Account  of  the  Fire  at  Harvard  College,  dated  January  25 , 1 794, 
among  the  losses  chronicled,  this  paragraph  occurs :  "  A  font  of  Greek  types 
(which,  as  we  had  not  yet  a  printing-office,  was  reposited  in  the  library) 
presented  by  our  great  benefactor  the  late  worthy  Thomas  Hollis,  Esq;  of 
London ;  whose  picture,  as  large  as  tlie  life,  and  institutions  for  two  Professor- 
ships and  ten  Scholarships  perished  in  the  flames." 


THE  AMERICAN  COLONIES  151 

trived  a  mould,  made  use  of  the  letters  we  had  as  punch- 
eons, struck  the  matrices  in  lead,  and  thus  supply'd  in  a 
pretty  tolerable  way  all  deficiencies."  The  earliest  types  in 
such  offices  as  that  of  Bradford,  the  first  New  York  printer, 
were  probably  Dutch  and  English;  later  types  were  Eng- 
lish, and  chiefly  those  of  Caslon  —  although  after  1775 
(roughly  speaking),  type  was  made  in  North  America.  Prim- 
ers and  books,  newspapers  and  broadsides,  were  mostly 
printed  in  Caslon  old  style  types  in  the  mid-eighteenth  cen- 
tury and  up  to  the  Revolution.  Indeed,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  itself  was  printed  in  the  Caslon  letter.  It  was 
the  face  commonly  in  use  until  about  1800. 

How  well  Colonial  printers  used  it  was  another  matter. 
For  Franklin,  writing  from  Passy  (where  he  had  set  up  a 
private  press)  in  October,  1779,  to  his  niece,  Mrs.  Partridge, 
says :  "I  thank  you  for  the  Boston  Newspapers,  tho'  I  see 
nothing  so  clearly  in  them  as  that  your  printers  do  indeed 
want  new  Letters.  They  perfectly  blind  me  in  endeavouring 
to  read  them.  If  you  should  ever  have  any  Secrets  that  you 
want  to  be  well  kept,  get  them  printed  in  those  Papers." 
Franklin  admired  and  recommended  Caslon's  types,  and  his 
own  office  was  equipped  with  them.  The  style  of  compo- 
sition of  most  Colonial  work  was  like  a  provincial  copy  of 
London  printing — and  was,  as  a  rule,  a  good  many  years 
behind  current  London  fashions. 

The  first  regular  American  type-foundry  was  that  of 
Christopher  Sauer  or  Sower  II  (son  of  a  German  printer  of 
the  same  name),  which  was  started  at  Germantown,  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1772.  Its  appliances  were  imported  from  Ger- 
many, with  moulds  for  three  sizes  of  German  type  and  some 
English  script.  Some  of  its  type  was  cut  and  cast  by  Sauer's 
assistant,  Justus  Fox,  who  bought  the  foundry  in  1784.  The 
next  foundry  was  that  of  Jacob  Bey,  assistant  to  Sauer  and 


152  PRINTING  TYPES 

Fox,  also  at  Germantown.  He  cut  and  cast  roman  as  well 
as  German  types.  Another  foundry  was  that  of  John  Baine 
&  Grandson  in  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  which  was  probably 
established  about  1788.  The  elder  Baine  (who  had  been 
in  partnership  with  Alexander  Wilson  of  Glasgow)  must 
have  come  to  Philadelphia,  whither  his  grandson  had  pre-^ 
ceded  him,  between  1787  and  1790,  the  year  of  his  death. 
On  the  title-page  of  A  Specimen  of  Printing  Types^  By 
John  Baine  £s?  Grandson  in  Co.,  hetter-founders,  Edinburgh 
(1787),  now  in  the  library  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society,  Worcester,  Isaiah  Thomas  wrote,  "This  Foundry 
was  brought  to  America,  by  the  grandson,  about  1771,  and 
established  at  Philadelphia.  John  Baine  came  over  not  long 
after  his  grandson."  But  there  is  a  discrepancy  between  this 
statement  and  the  generally  accepted  facts.  The  specimen 
contains  some  Caslon  fonts  of  early  form,  a  few  heavy-faced 
types,  and  a  number  of  late  eighteenth  century  types.  The 
repertoire  of  ornaments  and  their  ingenious  and  tasteful 
combinations  are  worth  looking  at. 

In  1791,  Adam  Mappa,  a  Dutchman,  brought  a  type- 
foundry  to  New  York  from  Holland,  chiefly  to  make  Dutch 
and  German  types.  "His  foundry  was  very  extensive,"  says 
a  contemporary,  "and  his  specimens  extravagantly  showy." 
Benjamin  Franklin  Bache,  grandson  of  Franklin,  possessed 
a  small  outfit  for  type-founding,  purchased  by  Franklin 
when  in  France,  but  it  was  little  employed.  "Dr.  Franklin," 
says  William  McCulloch  in  his  Additions  to  Thomas's  His- 
tory of  Printing  in  America^  "was  desirous  of  establishing 
his  grandson  at  that  business;  and  with  that  view  Bache 
wrought  some  time  in  the  foundry  of  P.  S.  Fournier,^  of 

^Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society, Yol.  31,  Pt.  1  (l92l). 
'  Probably  Simon  Pierre  Foumier,  son  of  P.  S.  (Pierre  Simon)  Fournier  le 
jeune.  The  latter  died  in  1768,  and  Bache  was  bom  in  1769. 


EARLY  AMERICAN  SPECIMENS  153 

Paris,  in  order  to  acquire  some  insight  preparatory  to  his 
commencing  in  America.  Franklin  purchased  a  foundry 
from  this  Fournier,  which  he  brought  to  America,  at  his 
(Bache's)  arrival ;  and  Bache  began  type  casting  in  Frank- 
lin Court  in  Market  Street  but  soon  relinquished  that  busi- 
ness for  printing.  I  have  seen,  in  Binny  and  Ronaldson's 
possession,  an  history  of  type  founding  (in  French)  of  which 
this  Fournier  is  the  author.^  Ronaldson,  who  was  some 
years  since  in  France  in  pursuit  of  antimony,  tells  me  he 
was  in  this  foundry,  now  in  the  possession  of  Fournier's 
grandson,^  and  that  there  is  a  bust  or  head  of  Franklin^  in 
that  laboratory,  at  which  the  men  looked  and  pointed  with 
the  liveliest  enthusiasm,  exclaiming :  'I'excellent  Franklin.'" 
The  four-page  specimen-sheet  issued  by  Bache*  is  chiefly 
madeup  ofCaslon  characters, although  thefew  types  marked 
by  an  asterisk  were  cast  in  Philadelphia  from  French  ma- 
trices. Interesting  historically,  this  sheet  contributes  nothing 
to  our  knowledge  of  American  type-forms — all  the  mate- 
rial being  foreign.  Though  undated,  it  probably  was  not 
printed  before  1790. 

Many  of  these  small  equipments  finally  fell  into  the  hands 
of  two  Scotchmen,  Archibald  Binny  and  James  Ronaldson, 
whose  Philadelphia  foundry  was  begun  in  1796.  In  1797, 
they  offered  for  sale  the  first  dollar-marks  ever  made  in  type. 
These  men,  in  1806,  purchased  the  appliances  for  type- 
founding  brought  over  by  Franklin. 

The  first  specimen-book  of  an  American  Type  Foundry 
is  said  to  be  that  of  Binny  &  Ronaldson,  which  belongs  to 

*  Evidently  the  ATanuel  Tyfiografihique  of  his  father,  Fournier  le  jeune. 

'  M.  Beaulieu-Foui-nier  (?). 

^  Possibly  the  likeness  of  Franklin  alluded  to  in  note  on  p.  257,  Vol.  I. 

''A  Specimen  of  Printing  Typ.es  belonging  to  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache'' s 

Printing  Office,  Philadelphia. 


154  PRINTING  TYPES 

the  nineteenth  century  —  A  Specimen  of  Metal  Ornaments 
cast  at  the  Letter  Foundery  of  Binny  ££p  Ronaldson.  Phila- 
delphia. Printed  by  Fry  and  Kammerer,  1809.  It  was  not 
a  printer's  specimen  of  types,  but  a  founder's  specimen  of 
ornaments.  About  one  hundred  ornamental  cuts  are  shown. 
In  appearance  the  designs  seem  largely  inspired  from 
French  sources.  A  few  of  them  are  like  those  shown  in 
Pierres'  collection  of  1785.  The  general  type  of  decoration  in 
others  is  similar  to  cuts  in  the  Gille  specimen  of  1808.  A 
feature  of  the  book  is  its  versions  of  the  arms  of  the  United 
States.  Ill-executed  mechanically  for  the  most  part,  from  a 
decorative  point  of  view  the  collection  is  respectable  and 
has  considerable  style.  The  prices  of  these  cuts  run  from 
twenty -five  cents  to  five  dollars,  and,  for  the  larger  cuts  in 
particular,  seem  high  for  what  was  supplied. 

In  1812,  a  Specimen  of  Printing  Types  from  the  Foundery 
of  Binny  £2?  Ronaldson^  Philadelphia^  appeared,  also  printed 
by  Fry  and  Kammerer.  It  begins  with  an  address  "To  the 
Printers  of  the  United  States."  The  proprietors  speak  of 
having,  through  patronage  of  printers,  been  able  "to  extend 
and  improve  their  establishment  on  the  grand  scale,  of 
which  this  specimen  exhibits  a  proof."  From  our  point  of 
view,  there  seems  to  have  been  little  grand  about  the 
foundry  except  its  pretensions. 

The  great  primer  roman  was  used  for  the  text  of  the 
imposing  quarto  edition  of  Joel  Barlow's  Columbiad^  printed 
at  Philadelphia  in  1807  {fg-  30 1),  and  very  finely  printed, 
too,  by  Fry  and  Kammerer,  whose  imprint  appears  on  the 
specimen  we  are  considering.  Notes  to  The  Columbiad  are 
set  in  the  small  pica  No.  1.  This  volume  is  an  early  instance 
of  an  American  edition  de  luxe^  and  reflects  the  style  of  Bul- 
mer's  London  editions.  The  engravings,  after  paintings  by 
Smirke,were  procured  through  the  interest  of  Robert  Fulton. 


o 

o 

oo 

c^ 

CM 

<M 

i 

■rH 

o 

"i 

^ 

•1^ 

• 

•\ 

en 

<2> 

+^ 

o 

CS 

• 

s^ 

'S 

5^ 

C/3 

O 

a 
o 
o 

•M 

CD 

CD 

a. 

• 

< 
C 

o 

1— ( 
1— 1 

o 

Co 

;-( 

CD 
.1—1 

C« 

113 

> 

CD 

CD 
CD 

o 
o 

CD 

>^» 

4-i 

0^ 
bJO 

o 

CD 

CD 
•  1— 1 

cd" 

l-H 

a. 

S 
o 

CD 

CD 
CD 

;-« 

4-» 

CD 

•  1— 1 

l—H 

Pu 

l-H 
4-» 
VH4 

1 

o 

p. 
o 

I' 

O 

c3 

> 

o 
o 

CD 
•  1— I 

CD 

0? 

0^ 

CD 

1— t 

'TIS 

o 

o 

CD 

bJD 
bJO 

l-H 
CD 

4-> 

> 

CD 

OS 

S 
o 

1 

1 

J5 

•  1— 1 

•  r-l 

s 

4J 

CD 

CD 

•  l-H 

O 

CD 

bJO 
O 

O 

'-a 

o 

CD 

CD 

o 

4-> 

CD 

;^ 

•  F-H 

4^ 

4-^ 

a 

4-» 

;h 

CD 

S 

CO 

O 

^ 

^ 

O 

^ 
fi 

< 

O 
O 

o 

PL, 

Q 

•  (—1 

4-» 

03 
1^ 

73 

•  r— 1 

EARLY  AMERICAN  SPECIMENS         155 

Of  the  larger  sizes  of  type  shown  in  this  specimen,  the 
French  Canon  roman  and  its  italic  is  a  really  handsome 
letter.  The  rest  of  the  larger  sizes  are  of  the  heavy  face 
then  fashionable.  The  transitional  forms  of  smaller  roman 
and  italic  shown  are  delightful.  I  do  not  know  whether  these 
were  cut  in  America  or  cast  from  imported  matrices,  but 
a  passage  in  the  preface  to  James  Ronaldson's  specimen  of 
1816  makes  me  believe  that  they  were  cut  by  Archibald 
Binny.  They  retain — especially  in  the  italic  of  certain  sizes 
— a  late  eighteenth  century  touch,  reminiscent  of  the  work 
of  Martin.  The  pica  was  supplied  by  Binny  &:  Ronaldson 
for  the  text  of  Isaiah  Thomas's  History  of  Printing  in  Amer- 
ica^ issued  in  1810.  Six  sizes  of  black-letter  with  a  disagree- 
able German  twist  to  it — notice  the  f's  {^jig.  302);  four 
German  text  types — the  double  pica  being  reminiscent  of 
very  early  German  fonts ;  three  sizes  of  Hebrew,  and  four 
of  rather  crabbed  Greek,  complete  the  book — except  for 
three  or  four  pages  of  ornaments.  The  "New  Flowers"  which 
open  the  collection  are  attractive  designs  in  white  on  black. 
The  American  arms  (No.  l),the  urn  (No.  4),  the  eagle  (No.  5), 
etc.,  are  quite  dehghtful,  and  really  charming  when  com- 
bined, as  in  the  sixth  of  these  borders.  The  skulls  and  cross- 
bones  below  are  less  inviting,  and  the  Resignation  "new 
flowers"  perhaps  indicates  the  immortelle!  {fig.  303).  The 
other  ornaments  are  mostly  variants  of  ancient  patterns,  and 
are  in  some  cases  excellent. 

Binny  &  Ronaldson  were  succeeded  by  James  Ronald- 
son,  who  brought  out  a  specimen  in  1816  which,  as  it  is 
beautifully  printed,  shows  the  transitional  types  mentioned 
above  to  much  better  advantage  than  Binny  &  Ronaldson's 
specimen  of  1812.  The  selection  offered  of  both  types  and 
ornaments  is  considerably  increased  and  bettered.  The  in- 
teresting Preface  alludes  to  the  1812  specimen  as  repre- 


156  PRINTING  TYPES 

senting  the  labour  of  twenty-five  years,  and  adds  that  the 
adoption  of  ranging  figures  and  the  round  s  are  among  the 
improvements  which  have  been  made  simultaneously  with 
European  foundries.  Apologies  are  offered  for  the  fat-faced 
types  put  forth  "to  imitate  the  Europeans,"  contrary  to  the 
founders' judgment,  and  proved  by  experience  to  be  suited 
only  for  "  works  of  fancy."  An  enlarged  edition  of  this  speci- 
men appeared  in  1822.  James  Ronaldson  was  succeeded  by 
Richard  Ronaldson,  who  apparently  issued  no  specimen. 
In  1833,  the  owners  of  the  foundry  were  Lawrence  John- 
son and  George  F.  Smith.  Later,  on  Smith's  retirement, 
Johnson  took  as  partners  Thomas  MacKellar  and  John  F. 
and  Richard  Smith.  Upon  Johnson's  death  in  1850,  his 
three  partners  added  Peter  C.  Jordan  to  their  company  and 
became  the  firm  of  MacKellar,  Smiths  and  Jordan,  remem- 
bered by  older  printers.  This  house  was  absorbed  in  1892 
by  the  American  Type  Founders  Company. 

The  material  that  a  well-known  eighteenth  century  printer 
possessed  is  shown  in  the  specimen  of  Isaiah  Thomas 
(1749-1831)  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  FrankHn  called 
Thomas  the  "American  Baskerville,"  but  his  printing 
was  not  remarkable  except  in  view  of  the  period  in  which 
he  worked,  and  the  difficulties  which  lack  of  good  paper, 
good  ink,  and  good  workmen  placed  in  his  way.  Thomas's 
chief  work  was  his  folio  Bible,  published  in  1791 — the 
first  folio  Bible  printed  in  America — for  which  Franklin, 
to  whom  Thomas  presented  a  copy,  expressed  great  admi- 
ration. Dr.  Charles  L.  Nichols,  the  biographer  and  bibli- 
ographer of  Thomas,  considers  Sew  all's  Carmina  Sacra 
(1789)  the  best  printed  of  his  books,  though  Thomas  pre- 
ferred Charlotte  Smith's  Elegiac  Sonnets  (1795),  a  volume 
printed  on  the  first  wove  paper  made  in  this  country,  by 


TWO  LINES  GREAT  PRIMER  BLACK. 

Init  fie  (t  futtl^et 


DOUBLE  PICA  BLACK. 


%nh  U  it  fmtf^tt  ftm'bp  en^ 
mtt,  nut  tht  Maputo, 
^ailiff^,  or  otliec  fteati  <i^f^ 


GREAT  PRIMER  BLACK. 


'Mnti  6e  it  futtljer  ifttthp  tmtu 

tff^,  or  ot&er  j&eab  <©fficet^  of 
tijcrp  (l^oton  antr  place  corjpo^ 


302.  Black-letter :  Binny  £s?  Ronaldson's  Specimen 
Philadelphia^  1812 


NEW  FLOWERS. 


i 


^0  ^^m^^Mmmm^m^m 


11 


12 


iX£><  iA&l^t  «Kfi>i  m&<«i  -i^VS^'^  ^V£>V4XS>«>  «V£>»^^V£^i  Jit, 


I  o    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^(pS!^^^^^^^^/Si^^j^^^^^lJ^^^^^*^sij:^-^'=^^=y=^^?^VS(j!^ 


14 
15 


fBt^^Mi^'^'^'WM^^^'VfmM'M^  W-.®  ^w® 


16  ^m^:fiM?;fM^™;^:iimmi;mmi^^^^^^^^^ 


'7     lt.I.T.!.ITT.M.T.M:Tt.T.I.r,T.T.I.T>I.-M.I.M.I.T.i.I.M.I.M.M.M.T>T.T.T.T.M.r'T.T.T>I.t.T.l.I.13al 


303.  Ornaments:  Binny  ^  Ronaldson''s  Specimen 
Philadelphia^  1812 


EARLY  AMERICAN  SPECIMENS  157 

Thomas  himself.  Thomas  also  printed  music  —  the  Worces- 
ter Collection  of  Sacred  Harmony  being  his  work.  He  was  the 
author  of  that  standard  book,  The  History  of  Printing  in 
America^  published  in  1810 ;  and  the  founder  of  the  Ameri- 
can Antiquarian  Society  of  Worcester,  of  which  he  was  the 
first  president. 

The  tide-page  of  Thomas's  specimen  shows  his  esteem 
for  William  Caslon  ^fig.  304).  He  had  a  complete  series 
of  the  Caslon  fonts,  with  some  large  letters  cut  on  wood. 
In  a  manuscript  note  in  a  copy  of  his  specimen  belong- 
ing to  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  Thomas  says: 
"£2000  sterling  and  upwards,  were  added  to  this  Speci- 
men, in  types  from  Fry's,  Caslon's  and  Wilson's  Foundries, 
between  1785  and  1784  \mc\.  A  great  addition,  and  a 
great  Variety  of  Types  were  added  to  the  following  after 
1 785.  When  complete  the  Printing  materials  were  estimated 
at  Nine  Thousand  Dollars."  His  specimen  shows  a  good 
assortment  of  mathematical,  algebraical,  and  astronomical 
characters,  a  font  of  Greek,  with  some  very  good  two-Hne 
Greek  letters,  and  a  small  font  of  neat  Hebrew.  There  are 
a  number  of  type  ornaments  or  "flowers,"  some  of  which 
are  very  pretty.  Of  them  Thomas  says :  "These  ornamental 
types  may  be  varied  in  a  thousand  different  forms,  but  they 
are  here  inserted  in  the  simple  manner  in  which  they  are 
cast";  though  the  compositor  has  tried  his  hand  at  new 
arrangements  without  great  success.  Set  in  a  commonplace 
script  is  this  concluding  advertisement :  "I.  Thomas,  Printer, 
Worcester,  Mafsachusetts,  has  with  the  greatest  care  and  at- 
tention furnished  himself  with  the  best  Printing  Materials 
that  could  be  made  in  Europe,  and  has  purchafed  these  ar- 
ticles to  a  very  large  amount.  —  He  has  every  thing  requi- 
site for  neat,  elegant,  or  ornamental  Printing,  be  the  work 
small  or  large,  and  will  be  happy  to  execute  every  com- 


158  PRINTING  TYPES 

mand  in  the  way  of  his  Profefsion,  on  the  most  reasonable 
Terms,  and  with  DifpatchP  The  book  is  rare,  but  a  copy 
which  Thomas  gave  to  Harvard  College  may  be  seen  in  the 
library  of  the  University. 


.■;ii!i;<in»>:iii!;-:iiiJ;-:iiii;-.iMi;:»iti.-;iiixitii;-:iiilxii|viMi;-:iiii:-:iin:-.mixii>: 
Jx<f 


J-< 


^1 


SPECIMEN 


OF 


ISAIAH   THOMAS'^ 
PRINTING 


Being  as  large  and  complete  an  ASSORT- 
MENT as  is  to  be  met  with  in  any  one 
Printing-office  in  America. 

Chiefly  MANUFACTURED  by  that  great  Artlft, 

WILLIAM    CASLON,  Efq; 

Of  LONDON. 


PRINTED  ztWORCESTER,  Massachusetts, 
By  ISAIAH  THOMAS. 


MDCCLXXXV. 


iiixi.:ii>rn- iic-iii;ii  •••iu>:ii(  nixiixiir  iiixmxiiiixiiix'iiixiiuxiiii: 


304.  Title-page:  Isaiah  Thomas's  Specimen^  Worcester^  1785 


CHAPTER  XIX 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY  "  CLASSICAL"  TYPES 
BODONI   AND  THE  DIDOTS 

THE  pseudo-classical  types  which  were  in  full  pos- 
session of  the  European  field  in  the  first  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  which  we  best  recog- 
nize by  the  term  "Didot,"  had  their  origin  (l)  in  some  special 
tendencies  or  influences  in  typography,  and  (2)  in  political 
and  artistic  movements,^  which  must  be  described  at  some 
length  if  we  are  to  understand  the  typographical  revolution 
which  they  brought  about. 

In  typography,  the  first  and  earliest  influence  was  the 
form  of  serif  introduced  into  the  French  romain  du  roi  by 
Grandjean  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  This  thin,  straight 
serif,  dazzling  to  the  eye,  rendered  the  romain  du  roi  letter- 
form  quite  unlike  anything  that  preceded  it.  Grandjean's 
serif  was  discarded  by  Luce  in  the  types  cut  by  him  in 
the  time  of  Louis  XV;  but  it  was  revived  in  types  cut  after 
Luce's  period,  notably  by  the  Didots. 

The  second  influence  was  the  fashion  for  more  modelled 
types,  with  light  strokes  in  greater  contrast  to  heavy  strokes, 
introduced  in  England  by  Basker\  ille.  This  style,  although 
it  never  took  root  deeply  in  England,  was  greatly  admired 
on  the  Continent,  especially  in  France  and  Italy.  For,  as 
Baskerville  said  when  he  offered  his  fonts  to  the  Academic 
des  Sciences,  "  I  have  never  sold  my  Types,  nor  do  I  intend 
to  sell  any  to  London  printers,  as  my  Labours  have  always 
been  treated  with  more  Honour  abroad  than  in  my  native 
Country."  To  France  Baskerville's  types  ultimately  went, 
and  his  influence  on  both  Bodoni  and  Didot  is  undeniable. 

*  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  latter,  see  Louis  Hautecoeur's  Rome  et  la  Renais- 
sance de  I'Antiquite  a  la  Jin  du  XVIIIe  Steele.  Paris,  1912. 


160  PRINTING  TYPES 

A  third  influence  was  the  condensation  of  type-forms — 
as  exhibited  by  Luce  in  his  caractere  poetique^  and  by  other 
founders  in  the  fonts  called  serve  or  approche — by  which 
letters  appeared  taller  and  narrowe?'. 

And  finally,  all  these  tendencies  were  accentuated  by  the 
taste  throughout  Europe  for  a  lighter  and  more  delicate 
style  of  typography;  sometimes  arrived  at  by  actually  cut- 
ting a  lighter  letter,  sometimes  by  greater  leading  of  the 

type. 

Chief  among  the  artistic  and  political  movements  which 
affected  type-forms  was  the  revival  of  appreciation  of  the 
antique,  which  by  1800  dominated  every  phase  of  art.  This 
revival  was  the  result  of  something  over  a  hundred  years  of 
unconscious  preparation.  Long  before  the  discovery  of  Her- 
culaneum  and  Pompeii,  excavations  had  been  made  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Rome,  and  the  "grand  tour"  had  made 
Roman  antiquities  familiar  to  travellers.  Although  the  first 
discoveries  at  Pompeii  were  made  as  early  as  1713,  it  was 
not  until  1745  that  Herculaneum  was  uncovered,  and  not 
until  1764  that  the  greater  part  of  Pompeiian  antiquities 
were  found.^  Even  before  the  latter  date  public  interest  was 
considerably  aroused,  and  these  discoveries  were  discussed 
in  learned  publications — Cochin,  who  visited  Italy  with  Ma- 
rigny  and  Soufliot,  WTiting  on  Herculaneum  in  1751,  and 
Carlos  III  in  1757  promoting  Baiardi's  Antichita  di  Erco- 
lano.  The  vogue  of  antique  art  was  heightened  by  Panini's 
paintings,  Piranesi's  engravings,  and  the  sketches  of  Hu- 
bert Robert ;  encouraged  by  the  French  Academy  at  Rome 
and  the  new  Academies  in  Naples,  London,  Madrid,  Parma, 


^  The  decoration  which  marked  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI,  known  as  style  Louis 
Seize  outside  France,  was,  owing  to  the  classic  tyiotifs  that  inspired  it,  called 
in  France  d  la  grecque — the  decorative  work  discovered  at  Herculaneum 
and  Pompeii  being  often  more  Greek  tlian  Roman  in  quality. 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  161 

and  elsewhere;  and  further  stimulated  by  the  sale  of  Sir 
William  Hamilton's  Etruscan  vases  to  the  British  Museum, 
the  installation  of  Roman  collections  of  sculpture,  etc.,  and 
thejourneyingsof  the  erudite  to  Naples,  Passtum,  and  Sicily. 
The  popularization  of  all  these  wonders  by  publications 
illustrating  and  describing  them — by  Caylus,  St.  Non,  Vis- 
con  ti,  Winckelmann,  Mengs,  and  others — led  people  to 
consider  Rome,  in  the  language  of  the  day,  "the  unique 
Emporium  of  the  Beautiful  and  the  Temple  of  Taste." 

In  architecture,  painting,  and  sculpture  men  soon  formu- 
lated what  was  supposed  to  be  the  underlying  theory  of  an- 
tique art.  Artists  searched  Plutarch  for  subjects ;  sculptors 
chose  living  models  on  account  of  their  likeness  to  antique 
statues ;  and  the  Beau  Ideal  was  to  be  attained  by  study- 
ing antiquity  rather  than  life.  In  painting,  these  ideas  were 
exemplified  by  such  pictures  as  Le  Serment  des  Horaces  of 
David,  by  Flaxman's  illustrations  for  the  Iliad^  and  by  An- 
gelica Kauffmann's  pictures  of  antiquity  a  la  mode.  In  sculp- 
ture, Canova  held  first  place  in  this  revival,  and  made  his 
reputation  by  work  which,  because  it  was  thought  the  last 
word  in  classicism  then,  makes  us  smile  now. 

And  in  the  minor  arts  all  the  forms  of  antique  ornament 
were  pressed  into  the  service  of  decoration.  In  furniture, 
marble  or  mahogany  was  encumbered  or  enriched  by  clas- 
sical ornaments  in  metal.  In  porcelain,  Etruscan  77iotifs  were 
used  at  Sevres ;  Wedgwood  named  his  potteries Etruria,  and 
for  him  Flaxman  made  classical  designs.  Ruins  became  ink- 
stands, tripods  turned  into  flower  stands,  porticoes  formed 
clocks,  and  sphinxes,  andirons.  Pliny's  Doves  in  mosaic  be- 
came table-tops,  paper-weights,  or  brooches,  buttons  were 
a  Pantigue,  and  even  fabrics  were  printed  from  Huet's  de- 
signs of  Roman  ruins. 

By  the  year  1790,  Greek  and  Roman  antique  art  had  com- 


162  PRINTING  TYPES 

pletely  captured  public  taste — social  and  political  events  and 
ways  of  thinking  in  France  being  particularly  favourable 
to  such  a  development';  though  French  students  and  artists 
resident  in  Rome  became  so  unpopular  because  of  their 
revolutionary  opinions  and  license  of  expression  that  they 
were  driven  out.^  But  by  1796,  the  Pontifical  States  were 
invaded  by  France,  and  the  rage  for  antiquity  showed  it- 
self in  French  demands.  Paris  must  be  a  new  Rome;  and 
so  it  was  needful  to  make  Paris  what  Rome  had  been  —  the 
artistic  centre  of  Europe.  To  effect  this  worthily  we  must, 
said  the  French,  possess  Roman  monuments ;  and  they  pro- 
ceeded to  possess  them.  The  Laocoon,  the  Dying  Gladiator, 
the  Faun  of  Praxiteles,  all  set  out  for  Paris,  accompanied  by 
Raphael's  Transfiguration,  Domenichino's  St.  Jerome,  and 
a  mixed  company  of  goddesses,  saints,  nymphs,  martyrs, 
and  emperors.  There  was  even  a  plan  to  carry  off  Trajan's 
Column,  which  proved,  on  investigation,  so  much  too  heavy 
that  a  lighter  obelisk  was  sent  instead.  The  greatest  works 
of  Italian  art  arrived  in  Paris  by  1801,  where  they  were 
received  with  public  rejoicing.  For  by  that  time,  politics, 
literature,  art,  all  recalled  the  antique  world.  Government 
was  confided  to  senators,  tribunes,  and  consuls — and,  more 
Romano^  a  victorious  general  was  made  Emperor. 

To  us  nowadays  the  antique  seems  something  very  hack- 
neyed, but  it  was  to  the  men  of  those  days  brilhantly  and 
thrillingly  new — a  resurrection  from  the  dead;  and,  by  an 
association  of  ideas,  antique  art — and  even  sterile  and  frigid 
imitations  of  it  —  symbolized  that  private  virtue  and  public 
wisdom  which  was  then  hopefully  supposed  to  have  made 
its  home  on  earth.  The  pseudo-classical  tendency  in  paint- 
To  the  Pontifical  authorities  the  ' '  last  straw ' '  was  an  unfortunate  work  of 
art  (somehow  made  into  candelabra)  showing  Jupiter  striking  Aristocracy 
with  Thunderbolts  and  Apollo  trampling  under  foot  Superstition. 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  163 

ing  and  sculpture  made  itself  felt  also  in  oratory  and  liter- 
ature. And  thus  it  seemed  necessary,  in  typography,  to 
clothe  new  modes  of  expression  in  a  new  way,  and  new 
type-forms  were  demanded  to  do  it/  It  required  only  a  "man 
of  the  hour"  to  accomplish  this — in  France  Didot,  in  Italy 
Bodoni.  Thus  artistic  movements,  political  reforms,  and  dy- 
nastic changes,  together  with  certain  tendencies  in  design, 
contributed  to  the  popularization  of  a  kind  of  type  which, 
however  far  from  classicism  it  seems  to  us  now,  represented 
to  the  bibliophile  of  that  epoch  a  return  to  "antique  virtue"! 


II 

IN  bringing  about  this  change  in  typographic  practice, 
Bodoni  showed  great  originality  in  his  new  type-forms, 
and  in  this  respect  was  the  man  most  to  be  reckoned  with. 
The  scholarly  prestige  of  the  Didots  (in  the  long  run  a  far 
greater  force)  was  influential  in  popularizing  these  new 
styles  of  type. 

Giambattista  Bodoni,  the  son  of  a  printer,  was  born  at  Sa- 
luzzo  in  Piedmont  in  1740.  Leaving  home  as  a  lad,  he  made 
his  way  to  Rome,  where  he  served  as  apprentice  in  the  press 
of  the  Propaganda  Fide — lafelice  scuola^  as  he  called  it — 

*  As  formal  types  called  for  a  formal  style  of  illustration,  old  decorators  of  the 
book  had  to  change  their  manner.  The  beautiful  Italian  (1754)  edition  of 
Lucretius, — Delia  JVatura  delle  Cose, —  translated  by  Marchetti,  edited  by 
F.  Gerbaidt,  and  dedicated  to  the  Marquis  de  Vandieres,  brother  to  Madame 
de Pompadour,  or  Le  Monnier's  Fetes  des  Bonnes-Gens  de  Canon,  etc.,  pub- 
lished by  Prault  and  others  at  Paris  in  1778,  with  frontispiece  by  Moreau, 
are  both  printed  in  easy  old  style  eighteenth  century  French  types,  with 
which  the  decorations  admirably  accord.  On  the  other  hand,  the  embellish- 
ments made  for  Didot's  folio  Horace  of  1799  by  the  architect  Percier  meet 
"Empire"  requirements,  and  Moreau's  illustrations  to  Legouve's  ie  iV/e- 
rite  des  Femmes  et  autres  Poesies,  brought  out  in  Paris  by  A.  A.  Renouard 
in  1809,  show  a  painful  endeavour  to  do  so.  Both  these  books  are  printed  in 
Didot's  "classical"  fonts. 


164  PRINTING  TYPES 

for  which  he  always  retained  his  early  affection.  Its  direc- 
tor, Ruggeri,  a  learned  man,  was  kind  to  Bodoni,  and  en- 
couraged him  in  trying  to  improve  himself — even  at  that 
early  date  we  find  Bodoni  cutdng  types  for  the  establish- 
ment. His  stay  there  was  not  long.  Ruggeri  committed  sui- 
cide, and  Bodoni,  unable  to  endure  further  employment  at 
Rome,  left  the  Press  with  the  idea  of  seeking  his  fortune  in 
England.  On  his  way  there,  stopping  at  his  parents'  house 
at  Saluzzo,  he  fell  ill ;  and  before  he  had  a  chance  to  continue 
his  journey  he  was  asked,  in  behalf  of  Ferdinand,  Duke  of 
Parma,  to  take  charge  of  the  Stamperia  Reale  at  Parma. 
This  was  in  1768.  Bodoni's  work  there  was  that  of  a  private 
printer;  he  produced  either  such  things  as  were  needed  at 
court,  or  interested  the  Duke ;  or  such  work  as  he,  on  his 
own  initiative,  proposed.  His  first  stock  of  types  came  from 
the  Parisian  foundry  of  Fournier,  and  he  also  cut  type  based 
on  Fournier's  models.  What  this  stock  of  type  was  in  1771 
is  shown  in  Bodoni's  specimen  of  that  year,  and  to  this 
period  belong  his  Essai  de  caracteres  Busses  (1782);  a  Mon- 
uale  Tipogrqfico  in  quarto,  a  folio  Manuale^  and  a  Greek 
specimen  —  Serie  di  caratteri  greci  di  Giambatista  [sic]  Bodoni 
— all  three  produced  in  1788.  By  this  time  Bodoni  had 
designed  a  great  number  of  types,  which,  beginning  as  old 
stvle,  by  degrees  took  on  a  more  modern  appearance.  His 
press  became  one  of  the  sights  of  Europe,  and  was  visited 
by  the  dilettanti  and  cognoscejiti  on  the  "grand  tour";^  his 

'Arthur  Young,  in  his  Travels  in  Italy,  writing  from  Parma,  December  9, 
1789,  says:  "  In  the  afternoon  .  .  .  to  the  celebrated  rea/e  ^zz/zoj^ro/Ja  ofSig- 
nore  Bodoni,  who  shewed  me  many  works  of  singular  beauty.  The  types, 
I  think,  exceed  those  of  Didot  at  Paris,  who  likewise  often  crowds  the  let- 
ters close,  as  if  to  save  paper.  The  Dafihne  and  Chloe,  and  the  Amynta,  are 
beautifully  executed;  I  bought  the  latter,  as  a  specimen  of  this  celebrated 
press,  which  really  does  honour  to  Italy.  Signore  Bodoni  had  the  title  of  the 
printer  to  the  king  of  Spain,  but  never  received  any  salary,  or  ev-en  gratifi- 
cation, as  I  learned  in  Parma  from  another  quarter;  where  I  was  also  in- 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  165 

editions  were  admired  and  collected  by  bibliophiles  every- 
where. After  1790,  his  situation  —  vis-a-vis  the  Duke  of 
Parma — was  improved.  This  came  about  through  an  offer 
which  Bodoni  received  from  De  Azara,  Spanish  Minister 
to  the  Papal  Court,  who  conceived  the  idea  of  starting  a 
press  there  (to  bring  out  editions  of  the  classics),  of  which 
he  invited  Bodoni  to  take  charge.  This  plan  coming  to  the 
Duke's  ears,  he  made  a  counter  proposal,  with  the  result 
that  Bodoni  remained  at  Parma  with  a  larger  press  and  a 
more  independent  position,  which  permitted  him  liberty  to 
print  for  any  one  who  wished  to  employ  him.  So,  besides 
Italian,  Greek,  and  Latin  books,  Bodoni  enlarged  his  field 
by  printing  French,  Russian,  German,  and  English  books 
— Walpole,  Gray,  and  Thomson  being  among  the  English 
authors  for  whom  he  produced  editions.  He  was  appointed 
printer  to  Carlos  III  of  Spain;  he  received  a  pension  from 
his  son,  Carlos  IV;  he  corresponded  with  Franklin;  he  was 
complimented  by  the  Pope;  the  city  of  Parma  struck  a 
medal  in  his  honour;  he  obtained  a  medal  for  his  work  at 
Paris;  he  received  a  pension  from  the  Viceroy  of  Italy; 
Napoleon  gave  him  another  and  a  larger  one,  and  in  short 
he  was  a  great  personage.  He  was  one  of  those  fortunate 
mortals  who,  appearing  at  just  the  right  moment,  knew 
exactly  what  he  wanted  to  do,  attempted  it,  succeeded  in 
it,  was  praised  for  it,  and  deserved  (and  highly  enjoyed)  the 
praise.  What  more  could  one  ask?  He  departed  this  life 
at  Parma  in  1813,  and  even  his  funeral  ceremonies  appear 

formed,  that  the  salary  he  has  from  the  duke  is  only  150  zechins.  His  merit 
is  great  and  distinguished,  and  his  exertions  are  uncommon.  He  has  30,000 
matrices  of  type.  I  was  not  a  little  pleased  to  find,  that  he  has  met  with  the 
best  sort  of  patron,  in  Mr.  Edwards,  the  bookseller,  at  London,  who  has  made 
a  contract  with  him  for  an  impression  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  four  Greek 
poets,  four  Latin,  and  four  Italian  ones — Pindar,  Sophocles,  Homer,  and 
ITieocritus;  Horace,  Virgil,  Lucretius,  and  Plautus;  Dante,  Petrarcha,  Ari- 
osto,  and  Tasso." 


166  PRINTING  TYPES 

to  have  been  precisely  what  he  would  have  wished  them 
to  be! 

As  to  Bodoni's  specimen-books  (apart  from  the  charm- 
ing little  specimen  of  1771,  Fr'egi  e  Majiiscole,  described 
in  a  former  chapter),  the  inscriptions  in  exotic  types,  —  Is- 
crizioni  JEsotici  a  Caratteri  novellamenti  incisi  ejusi,  1774, — 
printed  to  commemorate  the  baptism  of  the  Prince  of  Parma, 
may  be  considered  his  first  attempt  to  display  his  exotic 
characters.  It  is  an  interesting  book — of  50  pages,  quarto 
— and  shows  twenty  of  Bodoni's  "learned"  fonts  {Jig.  305). 
The  magnificent  Epithalamia'in  folio,  printed  in  1775  and 
later  to  be  described,  also  falls  into  this  class.  Bodoni's  Man- 
uale  Tipograjico  of  1788  I  have  never  seen.  It  was  appar- 
ently a  quarto  book  of  360  pages,  containing  one  hundred 
specimens  of  roman  and  fifty  of  cursive  types,  displayed 
in  French  and  Italian  on  one  side  of  the  leaf.  In  it  were 
also  included  twenty -eight  sizes  of  Greek  character,  which 
were  issued  separately  as  well.  This  edition  of  the  Manuale 
seems  also  to  have  been  printed  in  octavo  form  on  various 
special  papers  and  on  vellum. 

In  the  same  year,  1788,  Bodoni  issued  the  finest  and  most 
imposing  of  his  specimens  —  a  folio  collection  of  roman, 
italic,  Russian,  Greek,  and  Cancellereschi  types.  The  book 
opens,  unfortunately,  with  the  last  named,  in  fifteen  sizes 
of  a  detestable  form  of  script  capital;  but  the  twenty-eight 
alphabets  of  roman  and  twenty-seven  of  italic  capitals  which 
follow  are  perhaps  the  most  magnificent  of  their  kind  ever 
displayed.  The  roman  capital  letters  in  larger  sizes  (from 
1  to  5)  are  specially  fine — brilliant  in  cut  and  splendidly 
printed  in  ink  of  a  wonderfully  rich  black.  Then,  too,  un- 
like Bodoni's  later  books,  the  paper  has  a  pleasant  surface 
from  which  all  the  life  has  not  been  smoothed  out.  Nine 
alphabets  of  Greek  capital  letters  follow,  both  in  upright 


® 


Hellenistica 


ro  '  JidSioixa  •  dvtov 

iv  •  iBoSco  •  oiKOv  •  xaroiTretdoiiciroi; 

xal  '  XajXTtporrif;  '  jiXeixjiaroi;  *  dvtov 

ionv  •  00^ 

XajXTtpotTii; '  fiXejxiiaro;  •  A^J-iAoy 

UspisCoioev  •  dvtov 

6  •  T'-\\)iotO(;  •  oroAi)v  •  Sp^ni^; 

xal  '  (ji'vlc'Ae/ai;  •  xavxiil^^toi; 

hsSvoev  •  dyroi; 

np6(7(i);rov  •  dvtov  •  x^P^'^<^J^  *  jxeatcv 

xa]   '    ^aviiaotbv 

(o(;  •  darj)p  •  xal  •  co^;  •  toBov 

cfcotiCov  •  iv  •  vs(peX(XL(; 


® 


@ 


(g) 


@ 


® 


305.  Greek  from  Iscrizioni  Esotici:  Bodoni^  Parma^  1774 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  167 

and  cursive  forms — though  how  legitimate  Greek  ^''italic 
capitals"  are  is  a  question.  The  sizes  from  1  to  4,  or  5,  are 
superb,  especially  number  1,  in  both  italic  and  roman.  Next 
come  Russian  capital  letters  in  twelve  sizes  of  roman  and 
italic,  and  here  again  the  cutting  is  brilliant  and  the  im- 
pression effective  to  the  last  degree.  From  that  point  on,  the 
types  are  upper  and  lower-case,  beginning  with  roman  and 
italic  papale,  imperia/e,  reale,  duco/e,  in  three  weights  of  letter 
down  to  tresmegiste,  below  which  roman  and  italic  are  shown 
in  ten  sizes  of  each ;  followed  by  similar  Russian  fonts  of 
great  magnificence.  Fonts  of  Greek  follow  in  descending 
sizes,  and  a  few  specimens  of  roman  and  italic  {Jig.  306), 
which  are  much  more  old  style  than  Bodoni's  later  equiva- 
lent fonts. 

The  splendour  of  this  book  depends  upon  pure  typog- 
raphy. There  is  not  an  ornament  in  it — not  even  the  little 
tablets  by  which  Bodoni  sometimes  gave  a  dash  of  salt  to 
his  books,  but  with  which  less  skilful  printers  have  pep- 
pered their  reproductions !  From  a  passing  allusion  in  Bo- 
doni's preface  to  his  Manuale  of  1818,  it  appears  that  only 
a  few  copies  of  this  specimen  were  printed.^ 

To  this  period  also  belongs  Bodoni's  "Letter"  to  the  Mar- 
quis de  Cubieres^  in  French  and  Italian,  printed  in  1785. 
Concerning  it  Franklin  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Bodoni, 
dated  Philadelphia,  October  14,  1787: 

"I  have  had  the  very  great  pleasure  of  receiving  and 
perusing  your  excellent  Essai  des  Characteres  [sic]  de  Plm- 
primerie.  It  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  that  Art  has  hith- 
erto produc'd.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  a  specimen  of  your 

*  An  example  is  in  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

^  Lettre  de  J.  B.  Bodoni,  Tyfiographe  du  Roi  d' Es/iagne  et  Directeur  de  V Im- 
firimerie  de  S.  A.  R.  f  Infant  Due  de  Parme,  a  Monsieur  le  Marquis  de 
Cubieres.  Parma,  1785. 


168  PRINTING  TYPES 

other  Founts  besides  this  Italic  &  Roman  of  the  Letter 
to  the  Marq.^  de  Cubieres ;  and  to  be  inform'd  of  the  price 
of  each  kind. — I  do  not  presume  to  criticise  your  Italic 
Capitals  ;  they  are  generally  perfect :  I  would  only  beg  leave 
to  say,  that  to  me  the  form  of  the  7^  in  the  word  LETT  RE 
of  the  Title  Page  Yjig.  307  a]  seems  preferable  to  that  of 
the  Tin  the  word  Typographie  in  the  nextPage  \_jig.  307  b], 
as  the  downward  stroke  of  T,  P,  i?,  F^  B,  Z),  ZT,  7f ,  Z/,  /,  and 
some  others,  which  in  writing  we  begin  at  the  top,  natu- 
rally swells  as  the  pen  descends ;  and  it  is  only  in  the  A  and 
the  M  and  JV  that  those  strokes  are  fine,  because  the  pen 
begins  them  at  the  bottom." 

De  Lama  says  that  Bodoni  was  overcome  with  joy  to 
have  from  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America 
this  flattering  letter,  which  he  considered  a  title  to  glory 
and  preserved  with  religious  care.  Bodoni  and  De  Lama, 
although  a  little  mixed  about  the  ofiice  which  Franklin 
held  in  America,  were  quite  right  in  being  pleased;  and 
this  compliment  so  flattered  Ferdinand,  Duke  of  Parma, 
that  he  had  the  letter  translated  into  Spanish,  and  sent  it 
to  his  uncle,  Carlos  III,  at  Madrid,  to  whom  Bodoni  was 
honorary  printer  by  appointment.^ 

In  1806,  the  Oratio  Dominica  in  CLV Linguas  Versa  et 
Exoticis  Characteribus  Plerumque  Expressa  is  another  mas- 

*  Bodoni  was  often  called  "the  King  of  Typographers  and  the  Typographer 
of  Kings"  —  a  phrase  suggested  by  the  epitaph  on  Plantin's  tomb  at  Ant- 
werp. He  was  also  styled  "the  Baskerville  of  Italy" — just  as  Didot  was 
called  "  the  Bodoni  of  France,"  the  Foulis  brothers  "the  Elzevirs  of  Glas- 
gow," and  ITiomas  "the  BaskervUle  of  America."  This  rather  ridiculous 
habit  of  calling  somebody  the  something  of  somewhere  else  has  always  at- 
tracted a  certain  class  of  mind  in  this  country.  A  worthy  gentleman  who 
lived  in  Rhode  Island  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  collected  pictures  was 
styled  "the  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  of  Newport,"  and  a  Boston  schoolboy  de- 
scribed Demostlienes  as  ' '  the  Edward  Everett  of  Athens. ' '  It  was  reserved, 
however,  for  Mrs.  Piozzi  to  call  Switzerland  "tlie  Derbyshire  of  Europe." 


>1 


^ 
^ 


2:i 


^  ^^ 


^ 


(^^ 


■   V        «N 


o 


s 

d 


^ 

^ 


o 

CO 


£STT(kS 

Jupoqrap^c   du   5loi    o'8/paqnc 

€L.  oDirecteur-  "Ve  I  umptintetie 

ae    <d .  <i/L.  Uy..    (  anfauL.     Jjuc   '^e    ,^atmi_^ 

a  <i/ftonsiear  ce  'Prtarquis 

307.  (a)  Title  of  Lettre  a  De  Cubieres 

^i  dans  les  feuilles  du  Gomite  de 
Gorrespondance  ^  a  rankle  de  la 
^2/pographie^  on  a  comble  d'eloges 
quelques  faibles  essais  de  mes  ca- 
ractereSj,  vous  savez  que  je  les  dois 
enderement  a  tempressement  fiat- 
teur^  avec  lequel  vous  avez  exige 

307.  if)  Text  of  Lettre  a  De  Cubieres:  Bodoni^  Parma ^  1785 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  169 

terly  showing  of  what  Bodoni  could  do  in  foreign  and 
ancient  alphabets  —  though  a  somewhat  tiresomely  perfect 
book/ 

The  second  and  final  edition  of  Bodoni's  Manuale  Tipo- 
grafico  —  in  two  quarto  volumes,  with  a  Discorso  by  his 
widow  and  Prefazione  by  Bodoni  {Jigs.  308  a7id  309) — ap- 
peared in  1818,  five  years  after  his  death.  It  was  completed 
under  the  care  of  his  widow  and  Luigi  Orsi,  who  was  for 
twenty  years  foreman  to  Bodoni.  Signora  Bodoni,  writing 
to  M.  Durand  Pame  of  Metz,  from  Parma  (November  14, 
1817),  says  :  "The  Manuale  Tipograjico  in  two  volumes  on 
papier-velin  —  the  only  kind  of  paper  used  for  it  —  is  not 
yet  completed,  but  it  will  be,  without  fail,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  coming  year.  I  dare  to  believe  that  book-lovers  will 
thank  me  for  having  published  a  volume  which  is  so  very 
important  to  Typography.  The  reception  which  it  will  have, 
will  make  up  for  the  trouble  it  has  cost  me  (although  Bo- 
doni has  left  the  blocks  or  models  for  it)  and  the  consider- 
able expense  which  I  shall  have  had  to  incur  before  it  is 
finished.  Also,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  but  290  copies  are 
struck  off,  I  cannot  dispose  of  them  at  less  than  120  francs, 
without  any  reduction.  M.  Rosaspina  has  engraved  au  burin 
the  portrait  after  one  which  the  celebrated  Appiani  .  .  . 
painted  in  oils,  which  is  a  striking  likeness."^ 

The  first  volume  contains,  under  the  title  of  Serie  di 
Caratteri  Lati?ii,  Tondi  e  Corsivi,  a  series  of  roman  and  italic 

^  This  polyglot  Oratio  Dominica  was  printed  at  the  suggestion  of  Pius  VII, 
who,  in  May,  1805,  had  passed  through  Parma  on  his  way  from  the  coro- 
nation of  Napoleon.  It  was  intended  to  outdo  a  like  work  published  by  the 
Imprimerie  Imperiale  at  Paris.  Bodoni's  book  was  dedicated  to  Eugene 
Beauhamais,  Viceroy  of  Naples,  to  whom  he  personally  presented  a  copy. 
In  return  for  this  work,  Bodoni  received  a  pension  and  an  offer  of  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Royal  Printing  House  at  Milan. 
From  an  unpublished  letter  belonging  to  the  author. 


170  PRINTING  TYPES 

types,  which  cover  144  pages.  These  run  from  parmigianina 
to  papale.  Sometimes  there  are  as  many  as  fourteen  vari- 
eties of  the  same  body  in  diflPerent  designs  and  weights  of 
line.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  why  it  was  neces- 
sary to  have  so  many  kinds  which,  even  to  a  trained  eye, 
appear  much  alike:  though  it  is  perhaps  justifiable  in  the 
larger  sizes  —  as  in  the  three  weights  of  ducale{Jig.  310) — 
where  differences  can  be  clearly  detected.  The  number  of 
sizes  of  type,  so  nicely  graduated  that  one  almost  merges 
in  another,  is  more  explicable.  This  great  series  enabled 
Bodoni  to  place  on  his  pages,  not  approximately,  but  exactly, 
the  size  of  type  he  wished  to  employ  {_jig.  31l). 

Succeeding  pages  (145-169)  show  Serie  di  Caratteri  Can- 
cellereschi,  etc.,  in  smaller  sizes  ugly,  gray  forms  of  script. 
Here  and  there  an  interesting  one  appears  —  like  number 
13,  or  the  large  sizes,  16  and  17.  The  English  scripts  are 
imitations  of  the  "fine  Italian  hand"  then  fashionable  in 
England,  and  have  little  to  recommend  them.  Volume  I 
closes  with  an  enormous  array  of  capital  letters,  both  roman 
and  italic,  followed  by  a  few  pages  of  hideous  script  capi- 
tals unworthy  of  the  collection. 

The  second  volume  contains  an  assemblage  of  roman  and 
"italic"  Greek  capitals,  covering  sixty-two  pages;  and  ex- 
otic types,  beginning  with  Hebrew,  run  on  to  the  ninety- 
seventh  page.  These  are  followed  by  German  and  Russian 
types,  many  of  great  splendour.  The  book  closes  with  se- 
ries of  borders,  mathematical,  astronomical,  and  other  signs, 
musical  notation,  etc.  Some  few  ornaments  {fregi)  are  at- 
tractive {Jig.  312),  but  most  of  them,  while  very  perfect,  are 
chilly,  sterile,  and  uninteresting.  The  borders  {contomi)  con- 
fined in  rules — a  form  of  decoration  which  Bodoni  affected 
for  his  broadsides  —  are,  however,  quite  charming  {Jig. 
313).  The  arabic  figures  displayed  are  distinguished,  and 


fonderia:  ilManualepreseate  ne  ren- 
dera  esatto  conto ,  qualora  vogliasi 
coiifrontare  col  primo,  Converrammi 
piuttosto  osservare^  che  11  sesto  e  il 
contorno  sono  i  medesimi  cliegli  vi- 
vente  diede  ad  alcune  pagine  fatte 
iniprimere per prova.  In  qaeste^a  dif- 
ferenza  del  suo  primo  Manuale^  ove 
ogni  pagina  conteneva  la  descrizio- 
ne  di  una  qualche  citta^  comincian- 
do  colnome  di  essa^  voile  replicato 
il  principio  della  prima  Catilinaria 
=  Quousque  tandem  abutere  ecc. 
per  mettere  sotto  Vocchio  de' com- 
mettend  di  caratteri  il  vantaggio 
che  potrebbero  ritrarre  domandando 


308.  Page  of  Signora  Bodom's  Discorso:  Manuale  Tipografico^  Parma^  1818 


dono  puro  di  Dio  e  felicita  di  natu- 
ra,  benche  spesso  provenga  da  lunga 
eseicitazlone  e  abitudlne,  clie  le  piu 
difficili  cose  agevola  a  segno  clie  in 
fine  senza  plii  pur  pensai  vl  riescono 
ottimamente  fatte.  Che  pero  la  gra- 
zia  dell  a  scrittura  forse  piu  che  in  al- 
tro  sta  in  certa  disinvoltura  di  tiatti 
franchi,  risoluti,  spediti,e  nondime- 
no  cos\  nelle  forme  esatti,  cos\  degra- 
dati  ne'pieni,c/ie  non  trova  rinvidia 
ove  gli  emende.  Ma  forse  piu  sicuro 
e  ristringerci  a  dire  che  han  grazia 
le  lettere,  cjuando  sembrano  scritte 
non  gia  con  isvogliatezza  o  con  fret- 
ta ,  ma  piuttosto ,  che  con  impegno 
e  pena,  con  felicita  ed  amore. 

Tanto  pivi  hello  sara  dunque  un 
carattere,  quanto  avra  piu  regolari- 


309.  Page  of  Bodoni's  Prefazione:  Manuale  Tipograjico^  Parma ^  1818 


Quousque  tan- 
dem abutere,Ca- 
tilina,  patientia 

Quousque  tan- 
de  abutere,  Ca- 
tilina,  patientia 

Quousque  tan- 
dem abutere^ 
Catilina^  pad- 


310.  Specimen  of  BodonVs  Ducale  in  three  weights 
Manuale  Tipografico^  Parma^  1818 


A 


PHILOSOPHUS 

ET 

ORATOR 


ciTiS'Kom&teus 
flniToa  BtOQOSMTissin 


fniiosorJiui 


CD 


311.  Largest^  medium^  and  smallest  Roman  and  Italic  Capitals 
shoxvn  in  BodoJiVs  Manuale  Tipograjlco^  Parma^  1818 


:V:|^)        FREGI        ^4* 


922 


923 


muh 


*«^ 


9.5  ^!#^  ^%!i{^  "^t^ 
9^«  ^ij^.  ^i^  j^i^ 


5^1^  glfji  g\h  g\^  ^i?i  ^1^  ^1^  ^1^  ^tSfe  ^1^ 
929    ^W  "m^  ^^li^^'  '^lii^'^  ^<tl)^  ^1^  ^li^  ^IJ^  ^<<iii^'^  '^iij? 


980    t|y't^^p^^{rt{r\[rx^\lr'»lK-<lrt|K"W"t|K't|y 


9^1    /A^CTw 


312.  Ornaments:  BodonVs  Manuale  Tipografico^  Parma^  1818 


*>^    CONTORNI    \ 


XV 


■••3 O O 0-----0 (J...f..o o o <j.v— 0—-"0 o o  — 

•••o o o o 0----0 o a o 0......0 o o o— 


XVI 


,^-*:*s« 


vvx^vvv  ^X  ^'VxOvvv  33>  *'*'^  Ovvw  JQJ  vvvO  V^A'^M 


XVII 


aooQooooocccxjcoQoaxooaxiaxxo 


XVIIl 


XIX 


C C (5 o o- o o 3  — o o o o — ^  o  o-.. 

o o o o o o o o. o o o o o ;>••■ 


313.  Borders:  BodonVs  Manuale  TipograJicQ^  Par-ma^  1818 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  171 

deserve  mention.  The  music  type  is  uninteresting,  the  plain- 
song  notation  in  particular  being  too  modern  in  effect.  The 
work  is  probably  the  most  elaborate  specimen  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen  —  an  imposing  tour  deforce —  and  the  acme 
of  Bodoni's  late,  chilly,  dry  manner. 

Bodoni's  work  may  be  divided  into  two  periods :  (l)  when 
he  employed  old  style  or  transitional  types  and  used  decora- 
tions somewhat  profusely,  and  (2)  when  he  depended  on  his 
own  type-designs  and  unadorned  typography  for  his  effects. 
His  early  printing  shows  French  influence  very  distinctly, 
and  in  the  specimen  of  1771  —  Fregi  e  Majuscole — the  bor- 
der of  Bodoni's  title-page  is  almost  a  copy  of  that  of  the 
second  volume  of  Fournier's  Manuel  Typographique.  But 
earlier  than  that,  the  French  fashion  of  printing  appears  in 
such  books  as  Le  Feste  d\4pollo  and  the  Pastorale  of  1 769  — 
which  commemorate  gala  performances  in  honour  of  the 
marriage  of  the  Duke  of  Parma.  Some  other  early  books  of 
the  Stamperia  Reale — such  as  Alberti's  Saggio  di  Poesie 
Italiane  (1773)  or  Trenta's  tragedy  VAuge^  issued  about 
1774 — are  so  far  from  Bodoni's  later  style  that  it  is  at  first 
sight  difficult  to  believe  that  he  printed  them.  Such  a  book 
as  the  Epithalamia  Exoticis  Linguis  Reddita  of  1775,  issued 
in  honour  of  the  marriage  of  Marie  Adelaide  Clotilde,  sister 
of  Louis  XVI,  printed  in  Bodoni's  "first  manner"  from  old 
style  types,  is  a  masterpiece ;  really  magnificent  in  its  types, 
their  arrangement,  and  the  superb  engraved  decorations 
which,  for  once,  enhance  the  effect  of  the  page  ^figs.  314 
and  315).  I  think  it  one  of  his  finest  volumes. 

In  1784,  Bodoni  printed  another  very  charming  book  in 
this  early  manner — Prose  e  Fersi  per  onorare  la  Memoria 
di  Livia  Doria  Caraffa^  a  collection  of  poetry,  prose,  and 
inscriptions  which  is  probably  one  of  the  most  beautiful  me- 
morial volumes  ever  produced.  The  fonts  of  delicate  roman 


172  PRINTING  TYPES 

and  italic  type  are  distinctly  old  style.  In  1785,  Bodoni's  edi- 
tion of  Anacreon's  Odes,  in  quarto,  was  published — a  most 
beautiful  book  (printed  entirely  in  capital  letters)  in  Greek 
and  Latin.  The  volume  In  Fimere  Caroli  II I^  of  1789,  and 
the  Orazione  Funebre  of  Botteri  (for  the  same  occasion)  are 
also  good  specimens  of  his  earlier  taste.  The  Greek  and  Ital- 
ian Callimachus  of  1792  retains  a  great  deal  of  his  early 
style;  and  his  Tavola  di  Cebete  Tebano  of  1793  is  another 
delightful  piece  of  printing  —  simple,  and  very  character- 
istic. The  Brief  of  Pius  VI  of  1792,  of  which  there  were 
but  twelve  copies  printed  in  folio,  may  well  have  caused  the 
Pope  to  exclaim  that  he  must  issue  a  second  brief  to  praise 
the  way  in  which  Bodoni  had  printed  the  first  one!  Of 
all  this  work,  a  little  32mo  Anacreon  in  Greek  of  1791  is 
my  favourite — one  of  his  most  exquisite  bits  of  printing. 
Meanwhile,  the  increasing  number  of  books  prefiguring 
his  later  way  of  working — like  the  Horace  and  Imitation  of 
1791  and  1793  —  show  that  he  was  feeling  his  way  into  the 
refrigerated  manner  of  his  last  days.  But  his  first  period — 
less  known,  and  when  known,  less  considered — is  his  best. 
Of  Bodoni's  second  manner — which,  roughly  speaking, 
may  be  called  his  nineteenth  century  style — there  are  in- 
numerable examples,  and  in  all  these  later  books  the  area 
of  unprinted  space  on  his  pages  is  great.  Bodoni  lightened 
the  solidity  of  close-set  composition  by  exaggerating  his 
ascenders  and  descenders,  and  also  by  ingeniously  plac- 
ing small  faces  of  type  on  large  bodies,  which  effectually 
prevented  such  fonts  from  being  set  solid.  His  quarto  Taci- 
tus of  1804  is  a  fine  book — transitional  in  style,  perhaps. 
//  Bardo  delta  Selva  Neva  of  1806  is  a  full-blown  exam- 
ple of  his  favourite  and  typical  way  of  working.  The  Oratio 
Dominica  of  the  same  vear,  Tasso's  Genisalemme  Liberata 
of  1807,  the  Greek  Iliad  in  three  volumes  folio  of  1808,  La 


I 

d) 

O 

> 

o 

O 

a 

o 

o 

o 

a 

•1—1 

»r-l 


I 


I 

en 
o 

US 


O 


o 

bo 
u 


> 
O 

.2  55 

&J0    4-1 


a 

s 

O 


c/) 

•  i-H 

cy 


CO 

•  1—1 

O 


o 


B   .2 


•  i-H 

•  »-^ 

•  i«H 
1"       'i 

o 


O 


C/5 


t:5   :S 


a 

5-1 


o 


in 
1^ 


to 


s 

t 

^ 


^ 


■Si, 


CO 


a. 


I 


<3 

•ts* 


^ 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  173 

Rochefoucauld's  Maximes  in  French  of  1 8 1 1,  and  the  French 
THemaque  oi  1812,  which  Bodoni  thought  perhaps  his  best 
work  —  all  these  are  books  showingoriginality  of  conception, 
even  though  the  conception  may  not  be  of  a  very  endearing 
kind. 

One  of  the  last  and  most  typical  of  his  editions  is  La 
Giuditta  of  1813 — begun  but  not  finished  by  Bodoni — a 
book  absolutely  without  ornament,  and  very  fine  in  its  way. 
Some  smaller  volumes  of  poems  in  16mo,  delicately  printed 
from  delicate  types,  on  paper  which  is  much  like  vellum  in 
quality,  are  delightful  of  their  kind.  Such  are  Parini's  Odi 
of  1799;  Fersi  di  Giordani,  in  four  volumes,  of  1809  ;  and 
Fersi  del  Conte  Aurelio  Bemieri.,  1811,  in  four  volumes. 

Finally,  Bodoni's  broadsides — inscriptions  in  capitals, 
framed  in  borders  made  up  of  ornaments — are  among  his 
most  interesting  performances.  These  are  rare ;  and  while 
no  reproduction  gives  much  idea  of  them,  I  refer  the  reader 
to  their  facsimiles  at  the  end  of  Bertieri's  admirable  book.^ 

Bodoni's  larger  volumes  were  certainly  often  magnificent. 
They  were  planned  on  a  great  scale.  It  has  been  very  well 
said  of  him  that  those  who  came  after  might  choose  to  do 
something  else ;  but  that  what  he  chose  to  do  could  never 
be  done  better.  His  first  manner,  in  one  way  less  character- 
istic of  him,  is,  as  I  have  said,  much  the  more  agreeable 
and  sympathetic.  He  was  then  under  the  influenceof  French 
styles,  although  perhaps  he  had  given  up  employing  French 
types;  but  there  was  about  the  books  of  this  period  —  as 
in  those  of  his  rival  Didot — real  charm.  The  distinction 
of  old  style  type  was  retained,  but  it  was  slightly  refined. 

*  For  these  and  other  interesting  facsimiles  see  Bertieri  and  Fumagalh's 
UArte  di  Giambattista  Bodoni.  Milan,  1913.  The  series  of  plates  at  the  end 
show  at  a  glance  the  difference  between  his  early  and  late  manner  of  printing. 
A  chronological  table  of  Bodoni's  editions  forms  Vol.  II  of  De  Lama's  Vita 
di  Bodoni.  Parma,  1816. 


174  PRINTING  TYPES 

But  while  it  was  in  his  first  period  that  he  produced  his 
most  beautiful  books,  he  himself  did  not  think  so.  It  may 
be  said  that  this  is  self-evident,  because  he  soon  changed 
his  style  for  one  which  he  must  have  considered  an  im- 
provement. But  it  was  not  Bodoni,  but  the  spirit  of  the  art 
round  about  him,  that  made  his  later  types  more  and  more 
rigid,  their  heavy  lines  thicker,  and  their  light  lines  thin- 
ner and  more  wiry.  Wonderfully  perfect  as  these  types 
were  in  detail,  they  contributed  to  a  style  of  printing  that 
made  these  later  books  as  official  as  a  coronation,  and  as 
cold  as  the  neighbouring  Alps !  His  volumes  were  to  other 
printing  what  Canova's  statuary  was  to  earlier  sculpture. 

Many  of  Bodoni's  books  lacked  intimacy  and  charm,  too, 
because  of  his  conception  of  the  function  of  his  press.  He 
cared  nothing  about  printing  as  a  means  to  popular  instruc- 
tion. He  did  not  despise  the  masses  —  he  forgot  all  about 
them  !  He  was  a  court  printer,  existing  by  the  patronage  of 
the  Lucky  Few.  His  editions  were  intended  to  be  livres 
(Tapparat}  He  not  alone  saw  no  harm  in  making  them  so, 
but  the  bigger  and  more  pretentious  they  were,  the  better 
he  liked  them.  In  fact,  he  openly  said  so,  and  told  Renouard, 
the  French  publisher,  "  Je  ne  veux  que  du  magnifique,  et  je 
ne  travaille  pas  pour  le  vulgaire  des  lecteurs."  I  am  afraid, 
too,  that  he  always  retained  an  eighteenth  century  Italian 
carelessness  about  detail,  which  often  gave  Italian  archi- 
tecture and  painting  of  that  period  such  delightful  brio.  But 
"broad  effects,"  when  applied  to  scholarship  and  proofread- 
ing, lead  to  disaster.  Thus  the  texts  of  Bodoni's  classical 
editions  have  never  been  considered  very  correct,  and  his 
books,  apart  from  their  appearance,  are  not  valuable  to  the 

*  A  collection  of  Bodoni's  books  in  all  tlieir  different  editions,  on  large  paper, 
"  special "  paper,  vellum,  etc.,  is  preserved  in  the  Ducal  Library  at  Parma, 
where  the  matrices  of  Bodoni's  types  are  also  exhibited. 


PARANGONE  I. 

N'ayez  de  T  attacliement,  et 
de  r  amour  pour  le  monde , 
qu'a  proportion  du  temps  que 
vous  y  devez  etre  .  Celui  qui 
voyage^  ne  doit  point  s'  ar  , 

Non  ahhiate  attacco^  ne  amo- 
ve pel  mondoy  se  non  die  a  pro- 
porzione  del  tempo ^  che  voi  vi 
dovete  dimorare  .  Quegli  che  ec . 

PARANGONE  IL 

Iln'ya  au  monde  que  deux 
m^nieres  de  s'  elever;  ou  par  sa 
propre  industrie  ^  ou  par  V  imbe- 
cilite  des  autres .  On  ne  vole .  ec 
Non  ha  V  uomo  che  due  mez- 
zi  per  aggrandire;  o  la  propria 
industrial  o  V  altrui  imbecillitd. 
Non  si  vola  colle  stesse  ali  etc  . 


>'^mi 


316.  Roman  and  Italic:  A?norettVs  Sag-g^io  de' Caratteri 
Parma  ^  1811 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  175 

scholar.  Didot,  who  published  much  better  editions,  but  did 
not  print  so  well,  justly  enough  said  that  Bodoni's  books 
would  figure  on  the  shelves  of  collectors,  but  not  in  the 
libraries  of  savants — adding,  "Comme  litterateur  je  con- 
damne  ses  editions,  comme  typographeje  les  admire."  There 
were  other  eminent  critics  who  took  the  same  tone.  Appar- 
ently it  was  not  only  in  the  classics  that  he  sinned;  for  Horace 
Walpole,  writing  in  1790  to  Mary  Berry,  who  was  then  in 
Italy,  says,  "I  am  glad  you  did  not  get  a  Parmesan  Otranto. 
A  copy  is  come  so  full  of  faults  that  it  is  not  fit  to  be  sold 
here."  But  whatever  Bodoni's  faults  were,  he  was  perfectly 
characteristic  of  his  period,  and  expressed  it  in  his  work. 
Because  he  was  so  characteristic  of  his  time  is  perhaps  the 
chief  reason  that  he  is  a  great  printer. 

Andrea  Amoretti,  a  learned  Italian  priest,  who,  renoun- 
cing his  calling,  engraved  some  of  Bodoni's  types,  and  who 
printed  some  pretty  books  himself,  issued  a  delightful  little 
specimen,  Saggio  de*  Caratttni  e  Fregi  delta  Fonderia  dei 
Fratelli  Amoretti  Incisori  e  Fonditori  in  San  Pancrazio  presso 
Parma  (I8II),  and  this  book  shows  how  the  Italian  output 
had  been  influenced  by  Bodoni  and  Didot  ^  i^fig.  316).  The 
clear-cut  ornaments,  which  are  to  earlier  ornaments  what 
the  Amoretti  types  of  1 8 1 1  are  to  earlier  types,  are  very  per- 
fect, very  brilliant,  and  extremely  characteristic  of  the  fash- 
ionable style  in  printing  at  that  period  {^fig-  3 1 7).  Indeed,  Bo- 
doni's work  was  much  copied  by  such  presses  as  that  of  the 
Vicenzi  at  Modena  and  in  other  parts  of  Italy.  The  luxurious 
books  of  the  Tipograjia  della  Societa  Letteraria  at  Pisa  (now 
almost  forgotten),  which  employed  Amoretti's  fonts,  were 
important  and  collected  by  amateurs  of  printing.  The  effect 

'The  Amorettis  also  issued  in  1830  another  specimen — JVuovo  Saggio 
de'  Caratteri  e  Fregi  della  Fonderia  dei  Fratelli  Amoretti  Incisori  e  Fonditori 
in  Parma.  It  is  inferior  to  the  first  one  and  shows  some  types  in  theEngUsh 
manner  of  Thome. 


176  PRINTING  TYPES 

of  Amoretti's  fonts  is  shown  in  the  folio  Poesie  di  Catullo,  in 
Italian  and  Latin,  issued  at  Pisa  in  1815.  This  book  recalls 
Bodoni's  manner,  but  just  misses  its  excellence;  somehow 
the  types  seem  commonplace,  and  their  arrangement  lacks 
Bodoni's  clever  touch.  Amoretti's  types  are  also  used  in 
Tasso's  ^;72wto,  printed  in  Pisa  in  1804  at  the  same  press; 
but  here  the  types  are  too  much  spaced  and  look  weak,  not 
only  on  that  account,  but  because  they  are  so. 


Ill 

SOME  account  of  the  manifold  activities  of  the  Didot 
family  is  given  in  a  previous  chapter,  but  we  must  now 
consider  their  important  part  in  the  development  of  nine- 
teenth century  type-forms.  Their  eighteenth  century  influ- 
ence in  the  movement  toward  lighter  types  is  shown  by 
Frangois  AmbroiseDidot's  fonts  cut  by  Wafiard  about  1775,^ 
in  that  interesting  book  already  spoken  oi^Epitre  sur  les  Pro- 
gres  de  P Impnmene^  written  and  put  forth  by  Didot  raine 
in  1784,  and  in  the  delightful  Essai  de  Fables  Nouvelles, 
in  which  the  EpXtre  was  reprinted  in  1786.  It  is  but  fair 
to  say  that  mid-eighteenth  century  French  specimens  were 
full  of  very  light  fonts,  in  what  was  then  called  the  goiit 
nouveau,  and  it  was  these  that  the  Didots  somewhat  re- 
fined upon.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  graceful  and 
spirited  but  attenuated  old  style  types  used  by  the  Didots 
about  1780  were  very  beautiful,  and  have  not  been  suffi- 
ciently noticed  —  types  just  on  the  turn  of  the  tide  —  fore- 
shadowing the  coming  change  in  style,  but  by  no  means 

I  have  not  been  able  to  examine  any  volumes  showing  large  sizes  of  the 
Waflard  types,  which  were  quickly  superseded  by  Vibert's  fonts,  for  which 
Pierre  Didot  was  responsible.  Alphabets  of  Wafiard 's  characters  are  shown 
in  Thibaudeau's  La  Lettre  (T Imfirimerie ,  Vol.  I,  pis.  15  and  16.  Tlie  date 
of  their  appearance  there  given  (175?)  would  appear  to  be  open  to  question. 


ro8 
109 

000000000000(X)oSoOOOOOOOOOOOO(X) 


ALTRI     IN    QUADRO     DIVERSO 


/^/^/^/^/^/^/^/^y^ 


16 


@V^\^V^V^\^\^\^\^\ 


117 
118 


317.  Ornaments:  AmoreuVs  Saggio  de"*  Caratteri 
Parma ^  1811 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  177 

disfigured  by  it.  None  of  these  characters  (save  possibly 
Waflard's)  prepare  us  for  the  fonts  cut  by  Firmin  Didot 
about  1800  for  the  Racine  and  also  used  in  the  composition 
of  the  Constitution  de  la  Republique. 

The  famous  edition  dii  Louvre  of  Racine  (1801-5)  was 
printed  by  Pierre  Didot  in  three  folio  volumes,  and  con- 
sidered his  chef  d'^ozuvre.  "The  splendid  execution  of  this 
book,"  says  Bouchot,  "  was  a  true  typographical  revolution. 
Never  in  any  country  had  scrupulous  perfection  of  detail 
been  joined  to  somasterly  a  knowledge  of  arrangement  and 
form  of  characters.  The  great  artists  of  the  Davidian  school 
were  anxious  of  the  honour  of  seeing  their  drawings  repro- 
duced as  illustrations,  and . . .  designed  the  fifty-seven  plates 
with  which  the  edition  was  adorned."  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  copies  were  printed,  one  hundred  of  which  had  proofs 
of  the  plates  before  letters.  It  was  published  by  subscription 
at  1200  francs  for  the  ordinary  edition,  and  with  proofs  at 
1800  francs. 

The  series  of  typical  "Didot"  characters  used  in  it  is  dis- 
tinguished by  the  violent  contrast  of  their  thick  and  thin 
lines.  The  heavy  strokes  of  the  letters  are  very  strong,  the 
thin  lines  and  the  serifs  are  exaggerated  and  lightened  to 
a  mere  hair-line.  The  italic  is  almost  as  if  engraved.  The 
eiFect  as  a  whole  is  perfect,  but  dazzling;  it  sticks  into, 
rather  than  strikes,  the  eye.  All  the  agreeable,  mellow  feel- 
ing of  the  letter  of  Jenson  and  Garamond  is  gone.  "  Didot  in- 
con  testably  realized,"  says  Thibaudeau,  "a  pompous  roman 
alphabet  instinct  with  majestic  grandeur,  but  of  extreme 
dryness  and  absolutely  glacial  rigidity  of  line."  He  adds 
that  a  whole  school  of  typography  sprang  up  around  this 
Didot  "formula-type."  There  existed,  however,  a  minority 
who  did  not  accept  Didot's  fonts  without  criticism  and 
protest. 


178  PRINTING  TYPES 

We  can  understand  the  enthusiasm  excited  by  such  books 
as  Didot's  Horace  and  Racine  only  when  we  realize  that 
the  men  chosen  to  illustrate  them  were  part  and  parcel 
of  the  movement  in  Art  that  I  have  already  outlined,  and 
that  printing  was  itself  but  a  tiny  current  in  the  far-reach- 
ing sweep  of  this  tide.  Lifeless  and  pretentious  as  such  work 
seems  to  us  now,  to  the  public  of  that  day  it  appeared  the 
quintessence  of  the  antique  spirit.  For  it  must  be  observed — 
and  this  observation  has  a  moral  for  the  printer — that  what 
the  contemporaries  of  Didot  saw  and  admired  in  his  print- 
ing is  not  what  we  see  and  admire  now.  Men  of  that  day 
saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  in  Didot's  great  folios,  antiquity; 
to  us  the  only  interesting  thing  about  them  is  that  they  ex- 
hibit Didot's  idea  of  it.  And  since  the  Didot  idea  was  not 
particularly  interesting,  or  his  manner  charming,  neither 
his  types  nor  the  books  he  printed  with  them  much  interest 
us.  The  only  "period"  a  printer  can  work  in  so  as  to  give 
pleasure  at  subsequent  periods  appears  to  be  his  own. 

The  development  of  this  Didot  letter  is  shown  in  the 
Specimen  des  Mouveaux  Caracteres  .  .  .  de  P.  Didot  Paine  of 
1819  {Jig.  318).  Here  we  see  a  new  style  of  French  type  in 
full  swing.  Pierre  Didot  says  these  fonts  were  engraved 
under  his  personal  supervision  by  the  type-cutter  Vibert, 
whom  he  assisted  (and  probably  inordinately  tormented)  for 
three  hours  a  day  for  ten  years  to  get  things  to  his  mind. 
Frangois  Ambroise  Didot,  it  should  be  remembered,  had 
reformulated  a  system  of  type-measurement — one  reason 
why  his  style  of  type  became  so  popular  with  printers.  His 
son  applied  this  mathematical  sense  to  type-design,  with 
a  resultant  rigidity  which  is  a  mark  of  early  nineteenth 
century  "classic"  French  fonts.  Almost  every  trace  of  pen- 
quality  vanishes  in  these  types.  It  is  an  alphabet  "regular- 
ized" to  a  painful  degree;  though  very  perfect  and  very 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  179 

brilliant.  There  are  marked  and  disagreeable  peculiarities 
in  some  letters  {Jig.  319),  and  its  disabled  g  and  wounded  y 
warn  us  of  the  danger  of  too  much  fussing  over  details. 

Some  very  horrid  characters  engraved  for  the  Imprim- 
erie  in  1 8 1 8  by  Jacquemin  were  a  reflection  of  those  heavier 
types  introduced  by  Thorne  in  England ;  for  after  the  down- 
fall of  Napoleon,  English  fashions  were  popular.  They  had 
a  counterpart  in  those  of  Henri  Didot's  nephew,  Marcel- 
lin  Legrand,  whose  fonts  of  1825 — a  sort  of  mechanical 
version  of  Didot's  1819  fonts  —  were  followed  by  the  same 
engraver's  unpleasantly  condensed  types  of  1847. 

The  eflfect  of  types  of  the  Didot  school  may  be  seen  in  books 
published  in  France  by  different  members  of  the  Didot 
family,  by  Renouard,  and  other  progressive  publishers,  be- 
tween 1800  and  1850.  The  following  volumes,  selected  at 
random,  show  a  certain  progression  in  style  of  type  as  the 
century  advanced. 

In  the  BucoUques  of  Virgil  and  the  Idylles  of  Theocri- 
tus, translated  and  printed  by  Firmin  Didot,  his  caracteres 
d'ecriture  were  first  used  in  1806.  In  1811,  Renouard  pub- 
lished, in  two  volumes  12mo,  an  illustrated  edition  of  the 
Fables  of  La  Fontaine,  which  was  an  important  book  in  its 
time  and  a  characteristic  piece  of  early  nineteenth  century 
typography.  The  fonts  used  in  the  1817  edition  of  Moliere's 
works — in  octavo,  printed  by  Pierre  Didot  fame — show 
further  progression  to^vard  modern  face  types,  as  we  now 
understand  the  term.Baour-Lormian's  translation  of  Tasso's 
Jerusalem  Delivree^  published  by  Delaunay  and  printed  by 
Didot  le  jeune  in  1819,  though  virile  compared  with  later 
type  effects,  is  a  very  frigid  and  tiresome  performance. 

Poesies  et  Traductions  en  Vers  de  Firmin  Didot  Paris,  de 
la  Typographic  de  VAuteur,  1822,  shows  Didot's  own  views 


180  PRINTING  TYPES 

as  to  what  a  book  should  look  like ;  and  Napoleon  et  ses 
Contemporains^  a  series  of  engravings  with  text  by  A.  P.  de 
Chambure  (1824),  published  by  Bossange  and  printed  by 
Lachevardiere^/^,  is  a  good  example  of  fashionable  typog- 
raphy of  a  little  later  time.  Lettres  de  Napoleon  a  Josephine, 
etc.  (1796-1814),  published  and  printed  by  Firmin  Didot 
Freres  in  1833,  in  two  volumes  octavo,  is  also  an  example 
of  what  the  Didot  house  at  that  period  thought  fit  to  present 
to  the  public.  Paulin's  edition  of  Lesage's  Gil  Blas{lS35), 
with  its  hundreds  of  vignettes  by  Gigoux,  and  Curmer's 
edition  of  St.  Pierre's  Paul  et  Firginie  (1838)  were  consid- 
ered delightful  novelties  in  book-making.  In  the  latter,  be- 
sides many  full-page  wood-engravings  by  Tony  Johannot, 
the  text  was  smothered  with  innumerable  woodcuts  de- 
signed and  executed  by  the  best  hands —  French  and  Eng- 
lish—  in  the  "romantic"  manner  of  the  day.  These  two 
books  interest  us :  first,  as  endeavours  to  make  what  were 
then  considered  (and,  in  a  sense,  still  are)  remarkable  edi- 
tions; second,  because  in  them  all  unity  of  illustration  and 
typography  was  thrown  overboard.  This  style  in  the  mak- 
ing of  gift-books  persisted  in  all  countries  for  many  years. 

Finally,  Horace's  Opera,  printed  by  Firmin  Didot  in  1855 
from  very  tiny  types,  is  worth  examination.  Ambroise  Fir- 
min Didot's  address  Au  Lecteur  gives  some  typographical 
details  about  the  edition.  The  smallest  type  in  the  book  (cast 
by  Laurent  &  De  Berny)  is  used  in  the  notes  to  Didot's 
address — not  so  small,  however,  as  Henri  Didot's  micro- 
scopic types  used  in  1827  in  a  minute  edition  of  La  Roche- 
foucauld's Maximes. 

Except  for  the  reconstitution  of  books  of  that  period, 
types  of  the  Didot  school  have  little  practical  value  to  us 
now. 


LE  TREIZE. 

ConJLirant  la  melancolie, 

La  defiance  et  ses  detours, 

La  froideur,  et  la  jalpusie, 

En  ont  confie  I'heureux  cours 

A  I'Hymen  sensible,  aux  Amours, 

A  la  raison,  k  la  folie: 

Heureux  qui  sait  regler  toujours 

Leur  accord,  leur  douce  harmonic! 

Lci,  des  dieux  respirant  la  vie, 
L'Hymen,  par  sa  fecondit6, 
L'Hymen,  que  mon  coeur  deifie, 
Entretient,  aug^mente,  et  varie 
L  amour,  Fespoir,  et  la  gaiete; 
La  douce  paix,  la  liberte, 
Y  president  de  compagnie, 
Versant,  offrant  de  tout  cote 
Et  le  nectar  et  I'ambrosie. 

Comme,  apres  un  beau  jour  d'ete, 
La  nuit,  plus  calme  et  non  moins  belle. 


9 

319.  Roynan  in  P.  Didot's  Sp^cimen^  etc.^  Paris^  1819 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  181 

IV 

OF  early  nineteenth  century  French  specimens  to  becon- 
sidered,  the  first  is  that  of  J.  G.  GiWe  Ji/s,  who  in  1808 
issued  a  folio  specimen  entitled  Recueil  des  Divers  Carac- 
teres  Vignettes  et  Omemens  de  la  Fondeiie  et  Imprimerie  de 
J.  G.  Gille}  The  series  of  book-types  shown  are  just  on  the 
verge  of  modern  face.  The  titling-letters  are  of  the  extreme 
"Didot"  form.  The  best  fonts  in  this  book  are  the  beauti- 
ful series  of  caracteres  d'^ecnture  in  ronde,  batarde,  and  coule, 
which  (especially  in  larger  sizes)  have  much  movement  and 
style.  These  were  used  with  great  success  for  administra- 
tive and  commercial  printing.  The  vigriettes  or  type-borders 
are  distinctive,  particularly  those  with  black  backgrounds, 
which  are  among  the  handsomest  of  their  kind  {Jig.  320). 
The  collection  of  decorations  cut  on  wood  and  reproduced 
in  poly  type  is  an  important  feature.  All  kinds  of  interesting 
ornaments  are  displayed.  Many  of  them  are  in  the  pseudo- 
classic  taste  of  the  period,  which  was  taken  uncommonly 
seriously  by  Gille.  In  a  prospectus  about  his  designs  for  print- 
ers, he  alludes  slightingly  to  the  borders  and  tail-pieces  in 
Louis  XV  style,  holding  Luce  up  to  ridicule,  who,  he  says, 
"did  not  consult  the  immortal  and  enchanting  cartons  of  Ra- 
phael. .  .  .  But  in  our  day,"  he  adds,"Percier,  Fontaine,  and 
other  great  architects  have  appeared.  They  have  opened 
our  eyes,  and  iron,  marble,  steel,  wood,  all  should  breathe 
the  spirit  of  Raphael" — though  I  do  not  think  Raphael 
would  easily  recognize  his  "spirit"  in  Gille's  type  ornaments ! 
An  idea  of  the  collection  may  be  had  from  our  reproduc- 

This  foundry  existed  in  the  eighteenth  centun-,  when  it  was  presided  over 
by  a  certain!.  Gille,  who  published  an  interesting  octavo  specimen  in  1773, 
and  another  of  16mo  form  in  1778,  entitled  Caracthres  de  la  Fonderie  de 
J.  Gille,  Graveur  et  Fondeur  du  Roi,  etc.  About  1790,  his  son  acquired  the 
foundry. 


182  PRINTING  TYPES 

tion  of  a  broadside  specimen  of  his  types,  probably  issued 
also  about  1808  {fig.  321).  In  this,  examples  are  shown  of 
the  roman  and  italic  types  and  the  caracteres  cP ecrituj'e  just 
spoken  of,  and  the  sheet  is  surrounded  with  one  of  Gille's 
fine  borders. 

A  less  important  specimen  of  about  this  period  is  the  folio 
book  of  Fignettes  et  F/eurons  engr3.yed  by  Besnard  and  pub- 
lished by  him  in  1812,  printed  by  Mame,  and  interesdng  for 
its  pretty  ornaments  designed  in  light  style. 

At  the  Exposition  du  Louvre  of  1819,  the  Parisian  type- 
founder Mole  J«/w<?,  who  began  life  as  a  painter  and  designer, 
exhibited  a  series  of  fourteen  great  broadsides,  surrounded 
with  wide  borders,  which  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
type-specimens  known.  These  sheets  exhibit  the  result  of 
twenty-seven  years  of  personal  labour — 206  varieties  of 
roman,  italic,  civilite,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Rabbinical  Hebrew, 
Arabic,  Samaritan,  Syriac,  and  also  a  fine  series  of  roman 
tithng-letters.  In  addition  there  are  468  borders  (very  varied 
in  design  and  many  of  great  beauty),  rules,  etc.  The  roman 
and  italic  are  of  the  Didot  style,  and  (except  for  the  tiding- 
letters)are  less  mechanical  than  is  usual  in  such  fonts.  They 
show  this  kind  of  type  at  its  best,  though  owing  much  to 
the  splendid  presswork  of  Pierre  Didot  Paine.  We  repro- 
duce the  sixth  plate  of  the  series  {fig.  322).  The  Jury  of  the 
Exposition  commended  "this  immense  and  magnificent  col- 
lection as  the  w^ork  of  an  artist  who  gready  merits  notice, 
not  merely  for  his  admirable  work,  but  for  the  labour,  pains, 
and  immense  sacrifices  he  has  made  to  arrive  at  so  high  a 
degree  of  perfection."  As  a  conspectus  of  the  best  French 
type  of  its  day,  Mole's  fourteen  Tableaux  are  classic. 

French  typographic  ornament  of  this  period,  like  type- 
form,  w^as  much  influenced  by  England,  and  an  English  en- 
graver, Charles  Thompson, — brother  of  the  better  known 


00 

o 

00 


Co 


d 

CO 


321.  Broadside  Specimen  Oj 


"'fwfi™4S"""°"""™"l?!!''!^J!*?^ 


c)o  oJotanvaiCL-y  cu    LauCL^ 


AUG  L  S  T I N 

Un  liomme  qui  consomme  son 
bicn  iinprudcinincnt  porle  a  ses 
enfaiis  un  doniinagc  considerable 
ct  pi'oJuil  les  incomniodites  d unc 
miserc  suuveut  prejuJiciable. 

L  'urbanile  nioittre  Ics  homines 
coniirie  i/s  dct'roient  ctre. 

A.  AUGUSTIN. 

L'clude  dcs  llvres  est  un  doux 
amusement  pourceux  qui  aimcnt 
linstiurtiun ;  clle  Icurdiminue  les 
desagrcmens  qu'on  epiouvc  dans 
Ic  commerce  dcs  bommcs. 

La  tratvjuiUitt/  de  fame  prouve 
^videmnient  la  bonne  conscience. 

G.    TEXTE. 

Los  homines  que  Ton  croit 
coniniunc'iiicnt  hcurcux  en  ce 
monde,  ont  iiirmimcat  inoins 
de  parfait  contentcmcnt,  que 
dc  soucis  ct  d'amcrlumes. 

L' irresolution  est  uii  dejaut 
ijuinuil  a  notrc  avancemciit. 

G.  ROMAIN. 

Evitoiis  constainmcnl  la 
rcnconlre  de  ces  liominos 
Jc  coininunicalioii  librc  ct 
parlant  conlimicllemcnt. 

IjCS  liommes  cleiToiciit  se 
secourir  inutuellement. 

A.   C.  ROMAIN. 

L'ostcntation  dopulciice 
est  communemcnl  la  manie 
deshommes  qui  n'ont  point 
de  merile  personnel. 

La  hi  la  plus  exactement 
observee  est  la  bienseance. 


P.    PARANG  ON. 

Souvent  rhomme  ne 
peu  t  se  rendre  raison  dii 
motif  qui  le  determine. 

Un  homme  vraimcnt 
inslntit  est  ntodcstc. 

G.  PARANGON. 

Limmense  fortune 
doiine  de  la  vanite  a 
Ihommc  comrmin. 

JLa  niort  dim  liomme 
de  bien  est  un  malheur. 

P.   CANON. 

Communcment 
les  hommes  sent 
emportes  vers 

L  admiration. 

G.  CANON. 

Conimune. 
Estimation 

D.   CANON. 

amour 
amitie 


6 


atactt'tciJ 


ye 


tcttfuxO. 


£t  ^omflaClu  do  Itu  Aijio  eju  ttutoruii  aj 
J>oyer  ttuj  iihrteitr  ttu  i 


JTettj  cff^mtiiouiianeeo  ^eWiauz*  De.o  yivtciO 
tfe  £u  dkatiiiej  eu  dao  /hfbuiclj. 

£■«  \o\\.  iavciv  (ju\t  Jcio?  uicrjJaiHuicMi. 

Sitr  petit  Parangoiu 
£eCL.  QommiJJaireiL.  vre'poje'x^ 
a_J  lexamen  Jej  comvlea_ 

jUcii-  cA.iliotiiinize<L. 9c  fa  Q'ttfttJ 
PCJ  (JjteujjifaitctJ  ■'-^ 

Sur  gros  Purangon. 

VoiUL-  cteO—  invite  a  voutL. 
trouver  cO  t'CXjJemOle'cJ. 

deaiiceJ  puSCicjiie^  dcJ 

Sur  Petit  Cimoiu 

ULouA —  comtitati^oiiiV aJ— 

toti(<'(* —  Clt^iiiiitioliatioii,i 

Sur  quatre  Points  Je  Cicertt. 

ifiunitionnairecL. 
Ozaiiiatteiiieup^ 

Sur  Je„x  Point!  de  P.  Canon. 

(  owiwietccj 

yjiimumettcp 
Uraonnanccs> 


tllMBlia«gl>MltiliB«rn'iiWiillhBil>iiiililjfllilfriihiiiiirt*ll<llALnBJii<WlB*«Tt«1lflMiilBiBiiiiiiiii»iinMM«iilftB)iiift)iiinB»iwilfliB^^ 


«,  Paris ^  c.  1808  {reduced) 


i^a^'^^g>^^g(;^^',^^gj^:/»^>;i».t^^»^-s»igHy;^i:»:-^(g^^j^sa&'».^so^g&#^g;^^ia&#^8^ 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  183 

John  Thompson, —  contributed  to  this.  Settling  in  Paris  in 
1816,  his  engraved  decorations  were  very  much  the  mode, 
and  their  multiplication  by  the  process  known  as  polytypage 
put  them  at  the  disposal  of  the  ordinary  printer.  Thomp- 
son published,  in  1826,  the  first  of  a  quarterly  series  of 
collections  of  his  ornaments,  entitled  Recueil  de  Vignettes 
gravees  sur  bois  et polytypees par  Thompson.  This  thin  quarto, 
printed  by  J.  Pinard,  shows  his  work,  with  prices  for  the 
cuts  affixed  to  each.  They  were  not  very  charming  produc- 
tions, for  though  well  engraved,  they  were  somewhat  dry 
both  in  design  and  in  line.  But  Thompson  set  a  style  which 
was  much  followed  in  France. 

Many  of  the  cuts  in  the  Gille^/^  specimen  of  1808  are 
repeated  in  Epreuves  des  Divers  Caracteres^  Vignettes  et  Or- 
nemens  de  la  Fonderie  de  J.  A.  Pasteur^  Paris,  1823;  a  fuller 
and  in  some  ways  more  interesting  collection.  Though  Pas- 
teur appears  to  have  succeeded  to  some  of  Gille's  collection, 
probably  the  largest  part  went  to  Laurent,  Balzac,  and  Bar- 
bier.  After  the  failure  and  death  of  Gille  Jils^  Laurent,  a 
former  employee,  had  charge  of  the  sale  of  his  material  in 
1827.  Later,  he  became  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Laurent  & 
De  Berny.^ 

The  type-founder  L.  Leger  issued  a  brilliant  broadside 
which  shows  the  persistence  of  those  extreme  "classic"  type- 
forms  which  the  Didots  made  fashionable  {Jig.  323).  He 
brought  out,  some  time  between  1831  and  1844,  a  quarto 
volume  of  types  and  ornaments,  entitled  Specimen  des  Di- 

*  The  De  Berny  foundry  had  an  interesting  history.  With  Laurent,  and  a 
printer  named  Barbier,  the  noveUst  Honore  de  Balzac  formed  an  historic  but 
disastrous  association  in  1827,  in  a  scheme  to  erect  a  foundiy,  printing-office, 
and  pubHshing-house  all  in  one.  In  1828,  the  firm  broke  up,  leaving  Laurent 
in  possession  of  the  foundry,  who  was  joined  by  Alexandre  de  Berny  (placed 
there  by  his  mother,  whose  sentimental  relations  with  Balzac  greatly  influ- 
enced the  novelist's  career) .  This  firm  —  Laurent  &  De  Berny  —  existed  until 
1848,  when  the  business  was  continued  by  De  Berny  alone. 


184  PRINTING  TYPES 

vers  Caracteres  Vignettes  et  Fleurons  des  Fonderie  et  Stereo- 
typie  de  L.  Leger^  Graveur,  neveu  et  successur  de  P.  F.  Didot^ 
which,  according  to  its  compiler,  represented  the  results  of 
twenty-five  years'  labour.  The  ornaments  and  borders  are 
distinctly  light  in  effect,  black  backgrounds  having  mosdy 
disappeared  {Jig.  324).  The  types,  less  excellent  than  the 
ornaments,  are  still  in  the  Didot  style. 

An  extremely  characteristic  showing  of  types  in  popular 
use  in  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  made 
in  the  Specimen  Typographique  de  P Imprimerie Royale.  These 
two  folio  volumes  (I,  1845;  II,  1851),  display  a  number  of 
fonts  modelled  on  the  Didot  plan,  and  also  make  a  distin- 
guished showing  of  exotic  fonts  by  Jacquemin.  An  index  at 
the  end  of  the  first  volume  tells  who  cut  the  various  types 
displayed — Firmin  Didot,  Marcellin  Legrand,  and  Leger 
Didot  figuring  among  their  designers ;  while  among  ancient 
fonts  are  those  from  Garamond,  the  Propaganda  and  Me- 
dici offices,  and  Savary  de  Breves. 

The  Didot  foundry  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
family  until  sold  by  Ambroise  Firmin  Didot,  when  its  types 
became  part  of  the  Fonderie  Generale  of  Paris.  In  this  house 
were  consolidated  the  establishments  of  Firmin  Didot,  Mole, 
Crosnier,  and  fiverat.  The  1839  specimen  of  the  Fonderie 
Generale,  issued  by  E.  Tarbe,  who  presided  over  it,  shows 
text  types  in  the  "classic"  Didot  style,  and  many  of  the  or- 
naments designed  to  accompany  them — as  well  as  vignettes 
in  the  "romantic  manner"  which  are  very  characteristic  of 
that  time  and  very  amusing  in  this.  Another  important  spe- 
cimen of  the  Fonderie  Generale,  then  managed  by  Biesta, 
Laboulaye  &  Cie,  issued  in  1843,  showed,  in  addition  to  the 
collections  mentioned,  those  of  Lion,  Tarbe,  and  Laboulaye 
Freres.  The  preliminary  Avis  supplies  references  by  which 
the  types  cut  by  different  designers  may  be  identified.  The 


•^Sr 


Ahj^  PuiiiIs  lit-  Prill  /tonic 


AVRANCIIES. 


BEJUMONT. 


Deux  Points  dc  Crvs  lion. 


MOULINS. 


NJNTES. 


IVOUVEAI 


PAR  LEGER,  FONDI 


NEVEU  ET  SUCCESSEUR  DE  DU 


Dettjc  Points  dc  Pfuhso/ftite. 


CARCASSONNE. 


DUSSELDORF, 


Vflix  Points  dc  Petit  Parangon. 


ORLEANS. 


PJMIERS. 


ERMENOr 


FJBMOi 


Deux  Points  dc  C 


QUIM 
ROJl 


Dtiix  Puinis  lie  Tiismesisle. 


YPRES 


Mojtrmics  de  t^onte. 


s 


J 


Nota.  Ccs  Caracltris  onl  tie  fomliis  par  un  noti\eau  Precede  qui  olTrc  plusicui-s  avonlagcs  faciles  a  apprcciir.  II  est  |)roprc  a  1 
r'nfin,  Ics  lellrrs,  depuis  le  Cros  Roiiiain  jusqiraiix  Crosses  dc  fonlc,  sent  fondues  sur  un  cor])s  creux,  ce  qui  economise  un  cinq 
Lcncfice  diiqiiel  jo  suis  coproprietairc,  el  unc  Medallle  al'cxpoiillon  de  I'an  iSoG. 


323.  Broadside  Specimen  of 


TITRES 


EN  CARACTERES, 


I  DES  AUGUSTUS,  A  PARIS. 


Deux  Potnts  fie  Saint  /lugustin. 

GRENOBLE. 
HONFLEUR. 

Deux  Points  dc  Palestine, . 

STENAY. 
TURIN. 


Deux  Points  de  Gros  Trite. 


JOINVILLE. 
LEUCATE. 


Pctix  Points  de  Petit  dinoti^ 


UTRECHT 

VANNES. 


Deux  Pvinls  de  Gros  Canon. 


E  WORMS 


mcnl  dcs  Lcltrfs  de  deux  points,  nials  encore  des  Vignelles  et  dcs  Caracltres  d'ccritfire ,  qu'il  rend  a>issi  purs  que   le  poinQoii. 
,  comparativemcnt  a  la  manicie  ordinaire  de  fondre.  Ce  sont  ces  avantages  qui  ont  merilc  a  ce  Precede  un  Bret'et  itinventlon,  du 


tzSW' 


^^S 


't^sl 


*'><y*3'y9^9'^'y^<y^9^9^a9o'ysoo90'y9009099993909999a99'^909»»9<i<y9rityio9yyivvyvy)fyvi9<yvi(»s<i0990<^^ 


Paris,  after  1806  (reduced) 


^^^^^ 


®^ti@# 


J/Jj^Jgy-'V^JlJ 


^f@Kni)^ 


m 


324.  Borders:  Lager's  Specimen  des  Divers  Caracteres^  Paris 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  185 

book  is  important  to  any  one  desiring  to  reconstitute  the 
typography  of  a  somewhat  hopeless  period.  It  has  also  the 
doubtful  honour  of  being  one  of  the  earliest  specimen-books 
in  which  a  series  of  condensed  letters  for  titling  was  shown 
though  the  Didots  used  them  in  their  own  printing  much 
earlier.  Types  of  the  Didot  variety, — "classic"  types,  as 
they  were  called,  —  though  degraded  by  condensation  from 
the  best  Didot  form,  remained  in  general  favour  until  about 
1850' (/^.  325). 

Only  a  few  years  after  the  revival  of  the  original  Cas- 
lon  types  in  England,  Alexandre  de  Berny  brought  out  (in 
1852)  a  sort  of  French  old  style  letter  modelled  on  earlier 
fonts  ^jig.  326),  which,  to  quote  an  associate  of  De  Berny's, 
"belonged  to  the  Latin  family  of  letters  —  letters  charac- 
terized by  the  substitution  of  more  robust — '^plus  nourries''  — 
lines  for  the  fine  lines  of  the  'classic'  types."  Similar  types 
were  designed  about  the  same  time  by  the  Lyons  publisher 
Louis  Perrin,  who  used  them  in  De  Boissieu's  Inscriptions 
Antigues  de  Lyon.  These  types  were  made  familiar  to  the 
readers  of  a  generation  ago  in  the  publications  of  the  Paris- 
ian house  of  Lemerre.  "Elzevir"  types  were  also  issued  by 
Beaudoire  (Fonderie  Generale)  of  Paris.  All  these  offered 
agreeable  relief  from  the  monotony  of  fonts  of  the  Didot 
school — though  much  resented  by  the  adherents  of  "Di- 
dotery." 

Since  that  time,  many  different  kinds  of  old  style  fonts 
have  been  brought  out  by  French  founders;  such  as  the 
Serie  XFIP  Siecle  Elzevier^  a  useful  series  of  types  with 
attractive  ornaments  copied  from  Elzevir  decorations ;  and 
imitations  of  seventeenth  century  cursive  fonts  and  initial 

*  Werdet's  Etudes  Bibliographiques  sur  la  Famille  des  Didot  (Paris,  Dentu, 
1864)  should  be  consulted  for  an  account  of  the  chief  books  and  types  pro- 
duced by  the  Didots. 


186  PRINTING  TYPES 

letters,  produced  by  the  Fonderie  Mayeur.  The  utilization 
of  fonts  of  older  style  was  later  helped  by  such  men  as  Jules 
Claye  (predecessor  of  A.  Quantin  et  Cie.),  who  published  in 
1875  Types  de  Caracteres  et  cVOmements  Anciens,  an  inter- 
esting showing  of  "special  "  types  employed  by  him.  These 
were  cast  from  the  original  matrices  of  ancient  fonts  which 
he  called  Elzevirien,  and  for  them  he  produced  some  ex- 
cellent ornaments  and  initials — those  in  the  Lyons  style 
being  particularly  successful.  "Modern  designers,"  says 
M.  Audin,  "have  wisely  reacted  against  the  tendency  intro- 
duced by  Grandjean  in  his  types,  a  tendency  that  Basker- 
ville  and  Bodoni  did  not  know  how  to  escape  and  that  Didot 
carried  to  its  extreme.  A  better  balance  between  the  thin 
and  thick  strokes,  a  little  fancifulness  also  in  line,  has 
changed  entirely  the  physiognomy  of  modern  typography."  ^ 
While  types  showing  Didot  influence  are  still  much  used  in 
France,  the  most  carefully  printed  books  are  now  often  set 
in  French  old  style  fonts.  During  the  present  century,  the 
"historical  types"  of  the  Imprimerie  Nationale  have  been 
increasingly  employed  and  appreciated  —  in  works  like 
Claudin's  Hhtoire  de  V Imprimerie  en  France^  and  in  the 
agreeable  editions  of  Balzac,  Flaubert,  and  De  Maupassant 
printed  by  the  Imprimerie  for  the  Paris  publisher  Conard. 
And  some  modern  Parisian  type-founders  have  resuscitated 
eighteenth  century  styles  in  fonts  and  ornaments,  with  most 
charming  results. 

To  see  how  early  nineteenth  century  fonts  compare  with  the 
historical  fonts  which  preceded  them,  look  at  the  compara- 
tive table  of  roman  and  italic  types  employed  by  the  French 
National  Printing-House  from  1640  to  1825  {fig.  327).  It  is 
one  of  the  most  enlightening  documents  about  French  type- 

*Audin's  Le  Livre,  p.  50. 


Oi\ZE  i\°  16.  —  5  FR.  30  CENT.  LE  KILO. 

Ego  multos  homines  excellenti  animo  ac  virtule  fuisse,  el 
sine  doctrina,  naturae  ipsius  liabitu  prope  divino,  per  seipsos 
et  moderatos  et  graves  exslitisse  faleor :  etiam  illud  adjungo, 
saBpius  ad  laiidem  alque  virtulem  naturam  sine  doctrina,  quam 
sine  natura  valuisse  doctrinam.  Atque  idem  ego  contendo,  cum 
ad  naturam  eximiam  alque  illustr.em  accesserit  ratio  qusedam, 
conformatioque  doclrinse;  tum  illud  nescio  quid  praeclarum  ac 
singulare  solere  existere.  Ex  hoc  esse  hunc  numero,  quern  pa- 
ires  nostri  viderunt,  divinum  hominem,  Africanum  :  ex  hoc  C. 
Lselium,  L.  Furium,  moderatissimos  homines  et  continentissi- 
mos:  ex  hoc  fortissimum  virum  et  illis  temporibus  doctissimum, 
M.  Catonem  ilium  senem  :  qui  profecto,  si  nihil  ad  percipien- 
dam  colendamque  virtutem  litteris  adjuvarcntur,  nunquam  se 
ad  carum  studium  contulissent.  Quod  si  non  hie  tantus  fructus 
ostenderetur,  et  si  ex  his  studiis  delectatio  sola  peleretur:  ta- 
men,  ut  opinor,  hanc  animi  remissionem,  humanissimam  ac  li- 
beralissimam  judicaretis.  Nam  caiterse  neque  temporum  sunt, 
neque  setatum  omnium ,  neque  locorum  :  haec  studia  adolescen- 
tiam  alunt,  senectutem  oblectant,  secundas  res  ornant,  adversis 
perfugium  ac  solatium  praebent,  deleclant  domi,  non  impediunl 
foris,  pernoclant  nobiscum,  peregrinantur  ac  rusticantur.  Quod 
si  ipsi  haic  neque  attingere,  neque  sensu  nostro  gustare  posse- 
mus,  tamen  ea  mirari  deberemus.  Quis  nostrum  tam  animo 

Ego  mullos  homines  excellenti  animo  ac  virtute  fuisse,  et 
sine  doctrina,  naturae  ipsius  habitu  prope  divino,  per  seipsos 
et  moderatos  et  graves  exstitisse  fateor  -.  etiam  illud  adjungo, 
saepius  ad  laudem  atque  virtutem  naturam  sine  doctrina,  quam 
sine  natura  valuisse  doctrinam.  Atque  idem  ego  contendo,  cum 
ad  naturam  eximiam  atque  illustrem  accesserit  ratio  quaedam, 

IMPRIMERIE.       FONDERiE.        123456789  0. 

Fuit  autem  et  animo  magno ,  et  corpore ,  imperatoriaque 
forma,  ut  ipso  aspeclu  cuivis  injiceret  admirationem  sui.  Sed 

Fondeiie  G^ndiale,  rue  Madame,  n<>  22, ;»  Paris, 

325.  '"''Classic''^  Types:  Epreuves  de  Caracteres^  Fonderie  Ginirale 

Pans^  1843 


c'est  la  famille  des  lettres  Latines,  lettres  caract^ris^es 
par  la  substitution  de  traits  plus  nourris  aux  traits  fins 
du  type  classique  et  par  le  leger  raccord  des  empattements 
termines  en  pointe,  qui  delimitentles  traits,  avec  ces  traits 
eux-memes. 

Cest  la  une  creation  vraiment  originale,  qui  a  ouvert 
un  champ  nouveau  a  la  Fonderie  de  caract^res,  champ 
si  vaste  qu'on  peut  dire  que  la  plupart  de  ses  creations 
se  rattachent  a  ces  types,  depuis  leur  apparition  premiere, 
en  1852.  La  Typographie  a  multiplie  leur  emploi  dans 
toutes  les  impressions  si  varices  des  ouvrages  de  ville,  pour 
rompre  la  monotonie  resultant  de  I'emploi  unique  des 
lettres  d^rivees  du  type  classique.  II  n'est  pas  t^mt^raire 
d'affirmer  que  cette  substitution  sera  plus  complete  dans 
un  jour  prochain,  et  que  des  caract^res  ordinaires  proc^- 
dant  des  memes  principes  remplaceront  nos  types  actuels 
dans  presque  tous  les  travaux  de  I'lmprimerie. 

La  Typographie  reconnaissante  rapportera  le  m^rite 
de  cette  evolution,  d^ja  si  f^conde,  a  son  initiateur,  et 
associera  aux  noms  de  ses  illustres  devanciers,  les  Didot 
et  les  Fournier,  celui  de  de  Berny. 

326.  French  Old  Style  revived  by  De  Berny ^  Pari.s^  in  1852 


1 

TYPES 

TYPES 

1 

N. 

CRAVES 

A  LONDRES. 

PAR 

cnATts 

M.  MARC"  LEGRAND. 

1818. m 

182! 

3.  C) 

KO.y.OUK. 

no  MA  IN-. 

ITAI.IQLE. 

r.OMAlN. 

IfAI. 

KJLE. 

A 

a 

A 

a 

A 

a 

A 

a 

A 

a 

B 

b 

B 

b 

B 

h 

B 

b 

B 

h 

C     c 

C 

c 

C 

c 

C 

c 

C 

c 

D   d 

D 

d 

D 

d 

D 

d 

D 

d 

E     e 

E 

e 

E 

e 

E 

e 

E 

e 

F 
G 
H 

f 

g 
h 

F 
G 
H 

f 
h 

F 
G 
H 

f 

g 
h 

F 
G 
H 

f 

g 
h 

F 
G 
H 

f 

9 
h 

I 

• 

I 

• 

I 

I 

• 

I 

i 

I 

i 

// 

K 

J 
k 

J 
K 

• 

J 

k 

J 
K 

J 

k 

J 
K 

J 
k 

J 
K 

J 
k 

T, 

I 

L 

I 

T. 

I 

L 

1 

L 

I 

M 

m 

M 

m 

M 

m 

M 

m 

M 

m 

N 

n 

N 

n 

N 

n 

N 

n 

N 

n 

O 

0 

O 

o 

O 

0 

0 

o 

0 

0 

P 
R 

P 
r 

P 

Q 

R 

P 

q 

r 

P 

Q 

R 

P 

? 
r 

P 

Q 

R 

P 

q 

r 

P 

Q 
R 

P 
r 

S        S 

S 

s 

S 

s 

S 

s 

S 

s 

T    t 

T 

t 

T 

t 

T 

t 

T 

t 

u 

U 

u 

U 

u 

U 

u 

U 

11 

\       V  P 

V 

V 

V 

vv 

V 

V 

V 

V 

X      X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

Y 
Z 

y 

z 

Y 
Z 

Y 
Z 

y 

z 

Y 
Z 

y 

z 

to  1825 


A  GARAMONT. 

1640. (:i 


A 
B 
C 
D 

E 

F 

G  g 
H  h 
I     i 

"  ) 

K  k 

L  1 

M  m 

N  n 

0  o 

1  P 

R  r 
S  sf 
T  t 
u 
V  V 
X  X 

Z    z 


^ 

a 

'B 

h 

C 

c 

T> 

d 

E 

e 

J 
H 

f 
g 
h 

I 

i 

K 

J 
k. 

L 

I 

JW 

m 

0 

n 

0 

T   t 

« 

u 

%J 

V 

X 

X 

Y 
Z 

y 

PAR  GRANDJEAN  ET  ALEXANDRE. 
1693.  (21 


A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

H 

I 

J 

K 

L 

M 

N 

O 

P 

Q 
R 
S 
T 
U 
V 
X 
Y 
Z 


A  a 

B  b 

C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

G  o 

H  h 

I  i 

J  J 

K  k 

L  I 

M  m 

N  n 

0  0 

P  P 

Q  q 

R  r 

S 

T 

U  u 

V  V 

X  X 

Y  y 


f 


PAR  LUCE 

1740.  m 


A  a 

B  b 

C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

F  f 

G  g 

H  h 

I  i 

J  J 

K  k 

L  1 

M  m 

N  n 

O  o 

P  P 

Q  q 

R  r 

S  sf 

T  t 

U  u 

V  V 

X  X 

Y  y 

Z  z 


A  a 

B  b 

C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

F  f 

G  8 

H  h 

I  i 


J 
K 
L 
M 

N 
O 
P 

Q 

R 

s 

T 
U 
V 
X 
Y 
Z 


PAR  FIRMIN  DIDOT. 


A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

H 

I 

J 

K 

L 

M 

N 

O 

P 

Q 

R 
S 
T 
U 
V 
X 
Y 
Z 


J  a 

B  b 

C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

F  f 

G  8 

H  h 

I  I 

J  j 

K  k 

L  I 

M  m 

N  n 

O  0 
P 

Q 

R 
S 
T 
U 
V 
X 
V 

z 


p 
'1 

r 


PAR  JACQUEMIN. 

1818.  (5) 


A 

a 

A 

a 

B 

b 

B 

b 

C 

c 

C 

c 

D 

d 

D 

d 

E 

e 

E 

e 

F 

f 

F 

f 

G 

8 

G 

M 

H 

h 

H 

h 

I 

i 

I 

i 

J 

j 

J 

j 

K 

k 

K 

k 

L 

I 

L 

I 

M 

m 

M 

m 

N 

n 

N 

n 

0 

0 

0 

0 

P 

P 

P 

P 

Q 

M 

Q 

(/ 

R 

r 

R 

r 

S 

s 

S 

s 

T 

t 

T 

t 

U 

u 

U 

u 

V 

V 

V 

V  V 

X 

X 

X 

X 

Y 

y 

V 

y 

Z 

z 

z 

z 

A  LONDRES. 

1818.  »l 


A  a 

B  b 

C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

F  f 

G  g 

H  It 

I  i 

J  j 

K  k 

L  i 

M  m 

N  n 

O  o 

P  P 

Q  q 

R  r 

S  s 

T  t 

U  u 

V  V 
X  X 

Y  y 
Z  z 


A  a 

B  b 

C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

F  f 

G  g 

H  h 
I 

J  j 

K  k 

L  I 

M  m 

N  n 

O  o 


P.\R  M.  MARC"  LEGRAND. 

1825.  1') 


C  c 

D  d 

E  e 

F  f 

G  g 

H  h 

f  i 

J  J 

K  k 

L  1 

M  n: 

N  n 

0  o 


•  Tab/e  of  Ti/pes  used  bij  the  French  National  Printing'  House  from  its  foundation  to  1825 


"CLASSICAL"  TYPES  187 

faces  in  existence.^  The  letters  of  the  Garamond  fonts  of 
1540  are  most  irregular,  and  this  is  true  of  the  characters 
cut  by  Grandjean  in  1693  and  finished  by  Alexandre,  and 
those  of  Luce  of  1740  —  when  compared  with  the  greater 
mechanical  perfection  of  roman  letters  in  Didot's  font  of 
1811.  The  older  types  make  elegant,  easy,  readable  pages,  but 
pages  set  from  Didot  types  appear  rigid,  formal,  and  tire- 
some. This  is  still  truer  of  the  fonts  of  Jacquemin  and  of 
Marcellin  Legrand,  w  ho  cut  a  more  condensed  version  of 
his  type  in  1847 — which  by  no  means  bettered  its  design. 
Compare  the  Garamond  types  of  1540  with  the  Legrand 
types  of  1825,  and  it  is  plain  enough  that  mechanical  per- 
fection does  not  necessarily  make  a  fine  font.  And  yet  these 
types  were  intended  to  supersede  the  splendid  ?vmain  du  roi 
of  earlier  days.  All  this  came  about  in  French  typography 
through  Grandjean's  mischievous  serif,  Baskerville's  influ- 
ence, the  later  printing  of  Bodoni  and  the  Didots — and  some 
English  fashions,  which  must  now  be  considered. 

From  JVotea  sur  les  Ty/ies  Etrangersdu  Sfiecimen  de  r  Imfirimerie  Royale 
(Paris,  1847).  There  is  a  similar  table  in  Duprzt^ s  His(oirc  de  rim/irimerie 
Im/ieriaie  de  France  (Paris,  I86I). 


CHAPTER  XX 

ENGLISH  types:    18OO-1844 

IN  England,  a  change  in  type-forms,  analogous  to  that 
which  was  taking  place  in  France,  and  a  like  final  crys- 
tallization, brought  about  a  new  style  of  English  type. 
Transitional  fonts  which  were  far  on  the  way  to  this,  we 
have  seen  in  the  work  of  English  presses  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  It  is  their  nineteenth  century  develop- 
ment of  which  we  have  now  to  speak. 

Classification  of  types  by  centuries  is  an  arbitrary  thing. 
Typographical  style  does  not,  of  course,  change  because  im- 
prints are  dated  1800  instead  of  1799,  and  many  books  pro- 
duced in  England  early  in  the  new  century  resembled,  in 
type-forms  and  manner,  those  issued  during  the  last  years 
of  the  old.  For  instance,  a  poem  in  folio  entitled  The  Sover- 
eign. Addressed  to  His  Imperial  Majesty  Paul^  Emperour  of 
all  the  Jiussias,  by  Charles  Small  Pybus,  London,  Bensley, 
1800,  is  a  superb  showing  of  transitional  English  types 
just  about  to  become  modern  face{  Jig.  328).  Dibdin  wrote  in 
1817  that  he  considered  this  book  the  finest  piece  of  print- 
ing that  Bensley  had  produced.  Tasso's  Jenisalem  Deliv- 
ered^ printed  by  Bensley  and  brought  out  in  1803,  is  a  quarto 
showing  the  use  of  old  style  type,  much  leaded,  which  was 
one  of  the  ways  of  obtaining  the  light  effects  then  the  mode. 
Another  book  by  Bensley  which  is  interesting  to  the  student 
of  transitional  types  is  Macklin's  beautifully  printed  folio 
Bible  of  1800 — an  imposing  work  of  great  reputation,  in- 
tended to  rival  Bulmer's  "Boydell  Shakspeare."  Hume's 
History  of  England^  in  five  folio  volumes,  printed  for  Rob- 
ert Bowyer  in  1806  by  Bensley,  was  highly  praised  by  the 
lovers  of  fine  books  of  that  day.  Then  again,  Blair's  Grave, 
printed  by  Bensley  and  published  by  Ackermann  in  1813, 


<v 
u 

f 

o 

a 
o 


O 

X 

o 


6 
o 

I— H 

o 

o 
;3 


-s 

w 

O 

3 

S 

US 
O 

^-> 

n^ 

03 
0) 

a 

^ 

03 

bJO 

^ 

o 


03 


O 


f— ( 

> 
O 


a 
o 

S 

a; 

bJO 
03 


O 


X3 

O 

CO 

d 

o 

Id 

a; 

03 


<^ 

O 

03 


^ 


Co 
Co 


Co 

e5 


Co 

<^ 


SJ 

^ 


•■5^ 
^ 


Co 
Co 


1^     Cc5 


^ 


Co 


=^ 


t^ 


Co 


^ 


5:^ 


oq 


•^ 


Co 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1800-1844  189 

with  vivid  and  beautiful  illustrations  by  William  Blake, 
is  a  book  in  which  the  fine  types  used  in  the  introduction 
and  the  poem  itself  are  merely  in  the  direction  of  what  we 
to-day  call  modern  face.  In  the  same  class  falls  The  Pres.s^  a 
Poem.  Published  as  a  Specimen  ofTypo^raphij.  Bij  John  Mc- 
Creery.  Liverpool^  Printed  hij  ./.  McCreery^  and  sold  by  Ca- 
dell  ^  Davies,  London,  1803  —  a  beautiful  book  in  (juarto, 
with  wood-engravings  by  Henry  Hole,  pupil  of  Bewick, 
after  designs  by  Thurston.  It  is  set  in  a  charming  great 
primer  character  cut  by  Martin,  much  leaded,  with  Argu- 
ments set  in  italic,  and  was  printed  with  a  special  ink  made 
by  McCreery  himself. 

There  were,  however,  English  books  published  in  the 
earliest  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  which  did  show  a 
distinct  change  in  type-forms.  For  example,  in  1801,  Bul- 
mer  printed  for  J.  Wright  of  London  a  quarto  edition  of  a 
book  called  Poetry  of  the  Anti- Jacobin,  a  very  charming  per- 
formance, in  which  the  beautiful  types  are  losing  the  last 
vestiges  of  old  style  and  are  running  into  modern  face.  This 
book  is  a  collection  of  prose,  poetry,  and  drama,  and  shows 
verv  ^^■ell  the  effect  of  these  new  types  in  various  forms  of 
composition  {fg.  329).  In  Scotland,  James  Ballantyne  of 
Edinburgh  wasprindng  in  similarstyle.  Agood  specimen  of 
his  work  is  a  quarto  edition  of  Johnson's  Rasselas,  illustrated 
by  Smirke,  published  in  London  in  1805. 

The  Rev.  John  Anastasius  Freylinghausen  was  author 
of  a  somewhat  dreary  book  entitled  An  Abstract  of  t/ie  J J^ hole 
Doctrine  of  the  Christian  Religion,  which  he  was  able  to 
present  in  two  hundred  and  sixteen  pages  —  quite  a  feat 
when  one  stops  to  think  about  it!  This  excellent  \\ork  was 
edited  to  conform  to  the  doctrines  of  theChurch  of  England, 
and,  the  Preface  says,  "stood  so  high  in  the  good  opinions 
of  the  Greatest  Female  Personage  in  this  Kingdom,  that 


190  PRINTING  TYPES 

it  was  translated  into  English  for  the  use  of  her  illustrious 
daughters" — the  "Female  Personage"  being  no  other  than 
Queen  Charlotte.  This  book  was  the  first  volume  stereo- 
typed by  Earl  Stanhope's  process,  and  is  interesting  on  that 
account.  The  standard  rules  of  the  Stereotype  Office  affixed 
to  this  book  state  that  nothing  is  to  be  printed  against  Re- 
ligion, everything  is  to  be  avoided  upon  the  subject  of  Pol- 
itics offensive  to  any  Party,  that  the  Characters  of  Individ- 
uals are  not  to  be  attacked,  and — what  concerns  us  most 
— that  every  Work  which  is  stereotyped  in  this  Office  is 
to  be  composed  with  beautiful  Types.  This  notice  throws 
a  certain  light  on  the  innocuous  role  which  the  Stereotype 
Office  proposed  for  itself,  and  also  shows  that  they  thought 
this  book  printed  from  good  types — it  being  the  first  of 
their  publications.  These  types  are  not  old  style  at  all.  They 
are  what  we  now  term  modern  face,  and  the  book  is  men- 
tioned because  it  shows  an  early  use  (1804)  of  this  type- 
form  {Jig.  330). 

An  extremely  good  specimen  of  a  real  modern  face  roman 
type  was  used  in  Thomas  Frognall  Dibdin's  Bibliographical 
Decamemn^  printed  in  1817  by  Bulmer  in  three  volumes 
{jig.  33 1).  This  work  is  one  of  the  most  successful  typo- 
graphical achievements  of  the  early  nineteenth  century.  The 
typography  is  excellent,  the  pages  splendidly  imposed,  and 
the  reproductions  of  old  printers'  marks  and  other  illustra- 
tions beyond  praise.  In  presswork  it  is  one  of  the  finest  of 
modern  volumes.  It  needed,  ho\Aever,  all  that  the  printer 
could  do  for  it ;  for  its  author  wrote  in  an  affectedly  playful 
style  which  makes  his  books  among  the  most  tiresome  and 
irritating  in  the  language.  Bulmer's  fine  edition  of  Dibdin's 
Typographical  Antiquities  of  Great  Biitain  (Volumes  II,  III, 
IV)  and  Xh^Bibliotheca  Spenceriana  (1814-15)  are  also  worth 
examining. 


Though  thy  disloyal  sons,  a  feeble  band, 
Sound  the  loud  blast  of  treason  through  the  land : 
Scoff  at  thy  dangers  with  unnatural  mirth, 
And  execrate  the  soil  which  gave  them  birth, 
With  jaundiced  eye  thy  splendid  triumphs  view, 
And  give  to  France,  the  palm  to  Britain  due: 
Or, — when  loud  strains  of  gratulation  ring, 
And  lowly  bending  to  the  eternal  King, 
Thy  Sovereign  bids  a  nation's  praise  arise 
In  grateful  incense  to  the  fav'ring  skies — 
Cast  o'er  each  solemn  scene  a  scornful  glance, 
And  only  sigh  for  anarchy  and  France. 

Yes !  unsupported  Treasons  standard  falls, 
Sedition  vainly  on  her  children  calls ; 
While  cities,  cottages,  and  camps  contend, 
Tlieir  King,  their  Laws,  their  Country  to  defend. 

Raise,  Britain,  raise  thy  sea-encircled  head, 
Round  the  wide  world  behold  thy  glory  spread ; 
Firm  as  thy  guardian  oaks  thou  still  shalt  stand, 
The  dread  and  wonder  of  each  hostile  land ! 

329.  Types  used  in  Poetry  of  the  Anti-Jacobin:  Buhner^  London^  1801 


STANDING  RULES 


OF 


The  Stereotype  Office. 


1.  Nothing  is  to  be  printed  against  Religion. 

2.  Every  thing  is  to  be  avoided,  upon  the  subject 

of  Politics,  which  is  oftensive  to  any  Party. 

3.  The  Characters  of  Individuals  are  not  to  be  at- 

tacked. 

4.  Every  Work  which  is  stereotyped  at  this  Office, 

is  to  be  composed  with  beautiful  Types. 

5.  All  the  Stereotype  Plates  are  to  be  made  accord- 

ing   to  the  improved  Process    discovered  by 
EARL  STANHOPE. 

6.  School  Books,  and  aU  Works  for  the  Instruction 

of  Youth,  will  be  stereotyped  at  a  lower  Piice 
than  any  other. 

330.  Ti/pes  used  by  the  Stereotype  Office^  London,  1804 


NINTH   DAY.  43 

see  you  in  this  field  of  contest,  brandishing  your  unerrinfr 
lance,  or  quietly  reposing  beneath  the  panoply  of  your 
seven-bulls-hide  shield  ! . . 

Lysander.  This  must  be  a  very  extraordinary  cham- 
pion. 

LiSARDO.  '  In  his  way '  (as  they  call  it)  he  hath  absolutely 
no  compeer;  and  Magliabecchi  yields  entirely  to  his  ascen- 
dant genius — for  Nennius  not  only  loves  hoikes  as  lustily  as 
did  the  librarian  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  but  he 
hath  something  more  than  a  mere  title-page  acquaintance 
with  them.  His  memory  also  is  equally  faithful  and  well- 
furnished — and  such  a  gluttonous  bibliomaniacal  appetite 
doth  he  possess,  that  even  liymer^  the  Gallia  Christiana^ 
and  Bouquet's  Recueil  des  Historicns  ties  Gaules,  will  scarcely 
suffice  him  for  a  twelvemonth's  '  victualling.'  IVIabillon, 
Montfaucon,  and  Muratori  are  his  dear  delights  as  foreign 
authors ;  while  his  deal-shelves  groan  beneath  the  weight  of 
annotation  upon  our  home  historians ;  such  as  Gildas, 
Jefiirey,  his  namesake,  Ingulph,  Hoveden,  Malmesbury, 
Matthew  Paris,  Ralph  de  Diceto,  and  Benedictus  Abbas, 
&c.  &c. — and  then  for  the  *  scribbled  margins'  (asAVarburton 
used  to  express  it)  of  his  Leland,  Camden,  Twysden,  Gale, 
Sparke,  Hearne,  Batteley,  Grose,  King,  and  others  of  the 
hke  character — oh,  "'twould  do  your  heart  good  only  to  have 
a  glimpse  of  them  ! 

Lorenzo.  More  and  more  wondrous ! 

LisARDO.  I  have  not  yet  done  ^vith  Nennius.  He  hath 
no  small  knowledge  of  the  art  of  design ;  and  brandishes  his 
pencil  upon  castles,  cathedrals,  and  churches,  that  it  were  a 
marvel  to  see  how  his  drawers  and  portfolios  are  craimmed 
Avith  the  same.  There  is  not  a  church,  nor  place  of  worship, 
nor  castle,  within  the  counties  of  SiLSsex,  Kent,  and  Bedford, 

331.  Pag'e  of  Bibliographical  Daamcron:  Buhner^  London^  1817 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1800-1844  191 

Other  examples  of  the  employment  of  these  modern  face 
types  are  found  in  the  text  of  Rudolph  Ackermann's  cele- 
brated series  of  illustrated  quartos  on  Westminster  Abbey 
(1812)  and  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
(1814-15),  and  in  the  inimitable  Alicrocosm  of  Ijmdon 
(1808-11),  etc.,  the  coloured  plates  of  which  are  so  delight- 
ful that  they  have  obscured  the  merit  of  their  straightfor- 
ward typography — some  of  it  Bensley's  work.  Another  edi- 
tion which  shows  this  kind  of  type  (and  also  its  falling  off) 
is  John  Murray's  16mo  edition  of  Lord  Byron's  JVorks^ 
published  in  five  volumes  in  1823.  Here  we  begin  to  see 
what  such  types  were  coming  to  when  less  well  cut,  less  well 
printed,  and  less  well  imposed,  and  also  how  poor  they  were 
in  smaller  sizes.  For  printers  at  that  date  found  the  same 
trouble  with  delicate  modern  face  types  that  we  do  now.  In 
fact,  Dibdin,  in  one  of  the  few  directly  written  passages  in 
the  Bibliographical  Decameron^  mentions  this  difficulty,  and 
(somewhat  surprisingly)  seems  to  feel  that  old  style  types 
were  better  than  the  modern  cut  of  letter  in  which  his  own 
book  had  been  printed.  "  In  regard  to  Modem  Printing,^''  he 
says,  "you  ask  me  whether  we  are  not  arrived  at  the  top- 
most pitch  of  excellence  in  the  art?  I  answer,  not  quite  at 
the  topmost  pitch :  for  our  types  are,  in  general,  too  square, 
or  sharp;  and  the  finer  parts  of  the  letters  are  so  very  fine ^ 
that  they  soon  break,  and,  excepting  in  the  very  first  im- 
pressions, you  will  rarely  find  the  types  in  a  completely  per- 
fect state.  There  is  more  roundness,  or  evenness,  or,  if  you 
will  allow  the  word,  more  comfortableness  of  appearance,  in 
the  publications  of  Tonson  and  Knapton,  than  in  those  of 
modern  times."  Now  Tonson's  and  Knapton's  types  were 
old  style. 

As  in  all  periods  when  particular  attention  was  paid  by 
printers  to  making  fine  books,  the  cultivated  amateur  was 


192  PRINTING  TYPES 

not  lacking,  and  one  such  man,  now  forgotten,  was  Julian 
Hibbert.  He  was  an  interesting  character  who,  besides  hav- 
ing a  hand  in  the  social  and  political  reforms  of  his  day, 
undertook  to  reform  the  Greek  fonts  then  used  in  printing. 
In  1827,  he  brought  out  at  his  private  press  in  his  house  in 
London,  The  Book  of  the  Orphic  Hymns,  "in  uncial  letters, 
as  a  typographical  experiment"  {Jig.  332).  Hibbert  says  of 
his  alphabet  that  it  "was  first  composed  from  the  inspection 
of  Inscriptions  in  the  Musaeums  of  London  and  Paris,  and 
thus  it  is  no  wonder,  if  it  still  retains  more  of  a  scidptitory 
than  of  a  scriptitory  appearance."  After  reading  Montfau- 
con's  Palxographia  Grxca  and  examining  facsimiles  of  the 
Herculanean  manuscripts,  he  altered  the  forms  of  many  of 
the  letters.  "If  I  had  adopted  the  Alphabet  of  any  one  cele- 
brated MS.,"  Hibbert  says,  "I  should  have  had  less  trouble. 
...  As  it  is,  I  have  taken  each  letter  separately  from  such 
Mss.  as  I  thought  best  represented  the  beau  ideal  of  an  uncial 
type ;  .  .  .  yet  as  placed  side  by  side,  they  look  very  different 
from  a  ms."  But  he  calls  it  "  a  Greek  type,  which,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  is  calculated  for  ordinary  use,  approaches  nearer 
to  old  MSS.  than  types  that  have  been  hitherto  used,"  and 
"represents  with  tolerable  accuracy  the  forms  of  the  letters 
used  by  the  Greeks  themselves,  in  the  brightest  days  of 
their  literature. ...  I  do  not  mean,"  he  adds,  "a  type  like  that 
used  in  Bodoni's  Callimachus,  .  .  .  ornamented  (or  rather 
disfigured)  by  the  additions  of  what,  I  believe,  type-founders 
call  synjs,  or  cerejs.''''^  Two  books  were  printed  by  this  fore- 
runner of  Robert  Proctor,  who  was  indeed  vox  clamantis! 
The  fonts  had  considerable  charm,  but  were  at  the  time 
considered  —  if  they  were  considered  at  all  —  as  complete 
failures;  and  were  afterwards  melted. 

'  See  "  Preface  addressed  by  the  Printer  to  Greek  Scholars"  in  The  Book  of 
the  Orfihic  Hymns. 


Ymnoi.lv.  31 

LV   .    (54)      eic    ^(])pOAITHN 

Y  M  N  O  C    . 

OYP^NiH    .   noAYV^Ne   ,    (}>iAOMMeiAHC    ^(^POAITH  . 
noNTorcNHC    .    r€NeT€ipk   eeik   .   ({nAonANNyxe    .   c€mnh  . 

NyXTepiH     .     ZeyKTCipik      .     Z^OAOnAOKe      .     MHTCp     JiNATKHC  : 

nANTA  r^p  €K  cceeN  cctin  ,  y^fzeyi"  ^e  re  kocmon  ; 

KM     KpATeeiC     jpiCCCON     MOIPCJN     .      TCNNAIC     A€    TA     HANTA  :  5 

occA    T   eN   oypANui    ecTi    .    Kai    en    TAiHi   noAyKApnui  , 
€N   noNToy    Te   Byecoi     .     ccmnh    BAKXOIO   nApe^pe  . 
TepnoMeNH   saaihici    .    rAMocxoAe    .    MHrep    cporcoN  : 

neieOI     ACKXpOXApHC     .     Kpy(^)IH      .      XApiAUTI      ANACCA  . 

<j)AiNOM€NH   T    .    A(J)ANHC   T    ■   epATonAOKAM    .   eynATepeiA  .  10 

NyM<J)IAIH     .      CyNAAIT€      .     eCCON     CKHMTOyxe     .      AyKAlNA  r 

reNNOAOxeipA    .    cj^iAANApe    .    noeeiNOXATH    .    eioaoti  ; 

€N2€Y5ACA     BpOTOyC     AXAAINOTOICIN     ANAPKAIC   . 

KAi    enpcoN   noAY    4)Yaon    ,    epcoMANecoN    yno   (piAxpcoN  ; 

€px€0    .    KynporeNeC    eeiON    reNOC    :    eir    cn    OAYMHWl  15 

ecci    .   ecA   BAciAEiA    ,   KAAUi    THeoycA   npoctonui  : 

€iTe   KAI    eyAiFANoy    Cyp'HC    caoc    AwtfjinoAeyeic  : 

€iT€   cy    r   eN   neAioiC!    cyN    ApM.-.ci    xpyceoxeyKTOic 

MrynToy   KAxextic    lepHC    roNiMUACA    AoyxpA . 

H     KAI      KyANeOICIN     OXOIC     €ni    .nONTION     OIAMA  20 

epxoMeNH  xAipeic  NenoACON  KyKAiH.ci  xopeiAic  : 
H  NyM(J)Aic  xepnHi  KyANuniciN  €n  xeoNi  AIM  . 
eyiAC    €n    aitiaaoic    v^ammwaccin    aamaxi    koy4)Wi  : 

€IX     €N     KY'^P'^I      '      AN.VCCA     .     XpO(^)Ul     C€0     I     eNSA     KAAAI     Ce 
OApeeNOI      AAMHXAI     NYM4)AI      X     ANA     HiNX     CNIAyXON  25 

yMNOyClN     C€     .      MAKAipA     .     KAI     AMBpOXON     ATNON     AACONIN   . 

CAee    .   MAKAipA    eeA    .   maa   ennpAXON    eiAOC    exoycA  ; 

lyxHI      TAP     ce     KAAU     CCMNHI      AnOICI     AOrOICIN   . 

332.  Ju/ian  Hihhert's  Uncial  Greek  Tiifn-s^  London,  1827 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1800-1844  193 

It  is  to  Scotch  founders  that  we  must  turn  for  the  next 
step  in  the  development  of  the  modern  face  type-family. 
Alexander  Wilson,  who  in  the  eii^hteenth  centurv  made 
types  for  the  brothers  Foulis,  had  left  a  foundry  an  hich  was 
still  maintaining  scholarly  traditions.  The  taste  which  led 
to  the  adoption  of  lighter  type-forms  had  been  followed 
consistently  by  his  house;  and,  probably  still  further  influ- 
enced by  Didot  types,  the  Wilson  foundry  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  produced  an  English  version  of  them  —  the 
best  English  variant  of  this  form  of  letter  that  we  have.  It  is 
sturdier  and  pleasanter  to  read  than  parallel  French  types, 
and  we  are  much  more  at  home  with  it.  It  is  not  as  good  a 
type  as  the  Caslon  character,  but  as  produced  by  Wilson  it 
is  a  very  handsome  and  serviceable  letter,  and  in  it  we  have 
another  English  type-family  —  the  Scotch  modern  face.  It  is 
an  English  equivalent  of  the  fonts  shown  in  the  1819  speci- 
men of  the  Didots. 

The  fonts,  practically  as  we  have  them  to-day,  are  beau- 
tifully shown  in  the  Specimen  of  Modem  Printing  Types  cast 
at  the  Letter- Foundry  of  Alex.  Wilson  ^  Son,  at  Glasgow, 
1833.  This  quarto  specimen  is  in  two  parts.  In  an  "Ad- 
dress to  the  Printers,"  which  prefaces  the  volume,  the  Wil- 
sons say :  "  In  conformity  with  ancient,  immemorial  usage, 
we  have,  in  Part  I.  displayed  our  Founts  in  the  Roman 
garb — the  venerable  Qiioiisque  tandem;  but  lest  it  should  be 
supposed  that  we  had  chosen  the  flowing  drapery  of  Rome 
for  the  purpose  of  shading  or  concealing  defects,  we  ha\e 
in  Part  II.  shown  oflfour  Founts  in  a  dress  entirely  English." 
Two  pages  of  titling-letters  are  displayed  before  we  come 
to  the  first  body  type  —  a  spirited  and  fine  cut  of  great 
primer.  Then  follow  varieties  of  roman,  from  pica  to  dia- 
mond. A  page  of  double  pica  Greek  (used  in  the  Homer 
printed  by  the  Foulis  brothers)  is  followed  by  Greek  fonts 


194  PRINTING  TYPES 

down  to  "mignon,"  and  t\\o  pages  of  Hebrew.  The  roman 
and  italic  types  are  again  displayed  in  Part  II,  set  in  Eng- 
lish, sometimes  in  prose,  sometimes  in  poetry,  and  variously 
leaded.  A  broadside  specimen  of  Wilson's  newspaper  fonts 
ends  the  book.^  Every  roman  and  italic  type  in  it  is  mod- 
ern face.  We  show  a  pica  font  {Jig.  333).  "The  Foundry  of 
Messrs.  Wilson,"  says  Savage  (writing  in  1822),  "at  Glas- 
gow, has  been  long  established,  and  for  many  years  enjoyed 
a  monopoly  of  letter  founding  in  Scotland.  They  have,  how- 
ever, of  late  experienced  a  formidable  competition  from 
Mr.  Miller  of  Edinburgh,  who  derived  his  knowledge  of  the 
art  from  them,  and  whose  types  so  much  resemble  theirs 
as  to  require  a  minute  and  accurate  inspection  to  be  dis- 
tinguished."^ 

William  Blades  considered  "the  year  1820  as  a  boundary 
line  between  the  old  and  new  style  of  punch -cutting.  About 
that  time  great  changes  were  initiated  in  the  faces  of  types 
of  all  kinds.  The  thick  strokes  were  made  much  thicker  and 
the  fine  strokes  much  finer,  the  old  ligatures  w  ere  abolished 
and  a  mechanical  primness  given  to  the  page,  which,  ar- 
tistically, could  scarcely  be  called  improvement.  At  the  same 
time,  printers  began  to  crowd  their  racks  with  fancy  founts 
of  all  degrees  of  grotesqueness,  many  painfully  bad  to  the 
eye  and  unprofitable  alike  to  founder  and  printer."^  Thus 
taste,  which  in  England  had  sanctioned  very  light  types, 
began  to  change  to  heavier  faces  about  1815.^  Exactly  as 

'  A  similar  quarto  specimen  was  issued  in  the  same  year  by  the  Exiinburgh 

branch  house  of  Wilsons  8c  Sinclair,  which  may  be  also  consulted. 

^Decorative  Printing,  p.  73. 

'  Blades'  Early  Tyfie  Sfiecimen  Books  of  England,  Holland,  France,  Italy, 

and  Germany,  London,  1875,  pp.  21,  22. 

*  Blades  says  1820,  but  Vincent  Figgins'  specimen  of  1815  is  full  of  these 

dropsical  types,  and  Thome's  specimen  of  these  letters  appeared  as  early  as 

1803. 


Quousque  tandem  abutere,  Catilina,  patientia  nos- 
tra? quamcliu  nos  ctiam  furor  iste  tuus  cliidet? 
quern  ad  linem  sese  effrenata  jactabit  audacia? 
nihilne  te  nocturnum  preesidium  palatii,  nibil  ur- 
bis  vigilise,  nihil  timor  populi,  niliil  consensus  bo- 
norum  omnium,  niliil  hie  nuniitissimus  habendi 
senatus  locus,  nihil  horum  ora  vultusque  moverunt? 
patere  tua  consilia  non  sentis?  constrictam  jam 
omnium  horum  conscientia  teneri  conjurationem 
tuam  non  vides?  quid  proxima,  quid  superiore 
nocte  egeris,  ubi  fueris,  quos  convocaveris,  quid 
consilii  ceperis,  quem  nostrum  ignorare  arbitraris? 
O  tempora,  o  mores!  Senatus  hoc  intelligit,  consul 
vidit:  hie  tamen  vivit.  vivit?  immo  vero  etiam  in 
senatum  venit:  fit  publici  consilii  particeps:  notat 
et  designat  oculis  ad  ceedem  unumquemque  nos- 
trum.   Nos  autem,  viri  fortes,  satisfacere  reipub- 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 

£0123  4  56789 
Pica  Italic^  No.  3. 


Quousque  tandem  abutere^  Catilina,  patientia  nos- 
tra? quamcliu  nos  etiam  furor  iste  tuus  cludctf 
quem  ad  finem  sese  effrenata  jactabit  audacia?  ni- 
hilne te  nocturnum  prcesidium  palatii,  nihil  urbis 
vigilicB,  nihil  timor  populi,  nihil  consensus  bonorum 
omnium,  nihil  hie  munitissimus  habendi  senatus 
locus,  nihil  horum  ora  vultusque  moverunt;  patere 
tua  consilia  non  sentis ;  constrictam  jam  omnium 
horum  conscientia  teneri  conjurationem  tuam  non 
vides  ?  quid  proxima,  quid  superiore  nocte  egeris, 
ubi  fueris,  quos  convocaveris,  cpiid  consilii  ceperis, 
cpiem  twstrum  ignorare  arbitraris?  O  tempora,  o 
nwres!  Senatus  hoc  intelligit,  consul  vidit,  hie  tamen 
vivit.  vivit?  immo  vero  etiam  in  senatum  venit:  Jit 
puhlici  consilii  particeps:  notat  et  designat  oculis 
ad  ccedem  unumquemque  nostrum.  Nos  autem,  viri 
fortes,  satisfacere  reipub.  vidcmur,  si  istius  furorem 

AB  CD  EF  G  HIJKLMN  O  P  Q  R  S 

AnCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZJECE 

333.  Modern  Face  Types:  Alexander  Wilson  ^  Son^s  ^Specimen 
Glasgoiu^  1833 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1800-1844  195 

in  France,  the  weight  of  these  new  type-faces  was  at  first 
gained,  7iut  by  a  greater  weight  of  line  throughout^  but  by  a  dis- 
proportionate thickening  of  heavy  strokes  of  letters,  which 
left  their  hair-lines  much  as  before.  This  reaction  from  fra- 
gile to  sturdy  letters  was  a  change  which,  if  it  only  had  been 
guided  by  someone  familiar  with  early  type-forms, might 
have  led  to  better  results.  But  at  that  time  materials  for  the 
comparative  study  of  types  were  not  readily  assembled. 

The  further  development  of  these  fashions  brought  about 
a  kind  of  swollen  type-form^  in  which  all  the  lines  of  a  letter 
were  of  nearly  equal  strength,  and  these  were  the  types  of 
which  Savage  says:  "The  founders  have  now  introduced 
another  change  in  the  proportions  of  letters,  and  have  gone 
to  a  barbarous  extreme,  from  their  first  improvement.  The 
rage  is  now,  which  of  them  can  produce  a  type  in  the  shape 
of  a  letter,  with  the  thickest  lines,  and  with  the  least  white 
in  the  interior  parts."  He  adds  that  the  founders  said  that 
such  types  were  meant  for  printing  hand-bills,  etc.,  and  if 
they  were  introduced  into  book-work,  that  it  was  contrary 
to  the  original  intention.  Savage  displays  sheets  in  which 
original  Caslon  types  are  shown  in  contrast  to  the  current 
Caslon  types.  If  these  are  bad  types,  he  says,  "it  may  be 
attributed  to  the  bad  taste  of  others,  whom  the  founders  are 
desirous  of  obliging" — but  this  is  merely  an  ancient  and 
poor  excuse  for  not  sticking  to  one's  principles!  These  hid- 
eous fashions  for  a  time  drove  original  Caslon  types  to  the 
wall.  Hansard,  writing  in  1825, says:  "Caslon's  fonts  rarely 
occur  in  modern  use,  but  they  have  too  frequendy  been  su- 

'  These  characters  were  often  called  in  type-specimens  and  elsewhere  "Egyp- 
tian" (no  doubt  in  allusion  to  their  "darkness");  and  a  London  jest-book 
of  1806,  under  the  heading  "Fashionable  Egyptian  Sign-Boards,"  says  :  "An 
Iiishnian  dcscriliing  the  Egyptian  letters  which  at  j)rescnt  deface  the  Me- 
tropolis, declared  that  the  thin  strokes  were  exactly  tlie  same  size  as  the  tliick 
ones ! ' ' 


196  PRINTING  TYPES 

perseded  by  others  which  can  claim  no  excellence  over  them. 
In  fact,  the  book-printing  of  the  present  day  is  disgraced 
by  a  mixture  of  fat,  lean,  and  heterogeneous  types,  which 
to  the  eye  of  taste  is  truly  disgusting."^ 

In  London,  Robert  Thorne,  successor  to  Thomas  Cottrell, 
is  responsible  for  the  vilest  form  of  type  invented — up  to 
that  time.  Thome's  specimen-book  of  "Improved  (!)  Types" 
of  1803  should  be  looked  at  as  a  warning  of  what  fashion 
can  make  men  do.  His  "jobbing  types"  look  as  their  name 
suggests  !  His  black-letter  is  perhaps  the  worst  that  ever  ap- 
peared in  England.  In  Vincent  Figgins'  specimen  of  1815, 
and  in  Fry's  specimen  of  1816,  and  naturally  in  the  speci- 
men of  William  Thorowgood  (Thome's  successor)  of  1824, 
1832,  and  1837,  the  new  styles  are  triumphant  {Jigs.  334 
««Qf335).Fashions  like  these,  as  Hansard  says,  "have  left  the 
specimens  of  a  British  letter-founder  a  heterogeneous  com- 
pound, made  up  of  fat-faces  and  lean  faces,  wide-set  and 
close-set,  all  at  once  crying  Quousque  tandem  ahutere  patientia 
nostra?'*''  The  Caslon  specimen  of  1844  shows  the  adop- 
tion of  some  of  the  worst  current  fashions  in  types;  and  we 
exhibit  a  selection  of  the  unattractive  ornaments  intended 
to  accompany  the  "  fat-face  "  fonts  produced  by  this  famous 
house  {Jigs.  336  and  337).  A  tide  of  bad  taste  had  swept 
everything  before  it  by  1844 — the  precise  year  of  the  revi- 
val of  Caslon's  earliest  types! 

Much  the  same  thing  was  happening  on  the  Continent, 
and  the  curious  may  consult  such  "documents"  as  the  Sup- 
plement to  the  Specimen  of  the  Spanish  founders,  J.  B.  Cle- 
ment-Sturme  y  Compania,  published  at  Valencia  in  1833, 
which  is  full  of  types  of  this  kind ;  the  Didot,  Legrand  et  Cie. 

'Hansard's  Typ.ograp.hia,  London,  1825,  p.  355.  As  early  as  1805  theCas- 
lons  ceased  to  show  in  their  specimen  the  original  types  cut  by  tlie  first 
William  Caslon. 


English  No.  2. 
Quousque  tandem  abutere,  Catilina,  patientia 
nostra?  qiiamdiu  nos  etiani  iViror  iste  tuuselu- 
det?  quern  ad  iineni  sese  effrenata  jactabit  au- 
dacia?  nihihie  te  nocturniim  pra.\sidiiim  palatii 
nihil  nrbis  vigilia?,  nihil  timor  popvili,  nihil 
consensus  Ijononim  oniniuni,  nihil  liic  niuni- 
tissimus  habendi  senatus  locus,  nihil  horum  or 
vultusque  nioverunt?  j)atere  tua  consilia  non 

ABCDEFGIIIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
iECE  £1234367890 

ABCDEFGlllJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZyECE 

Quousque  tandem  ahutere,  Catilhia,  patientia 
nostra?  quamdiu  nos  etiani  furor  iste  tuus  elu- 
det?  queni  adfinem  sese  effrenata  jactabit  au- 
ilacia?  nihilne  te  iiocturnuni  praesidiuni palatii 
nihil  urbis  vigilice,  nihil  timor  populi,  nihil 
consensus  bonorum  omnium,  nihil  hie  muni- 
tissimus  habendi  senatus  locus,  nihil  horum  or 
vultusque  moverunt?  patere  tuaAJBCDEFGII 

IJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZM(EMjy 

English  No.  2,  on  Pica  Body. 

Quousque  tandem  abutere,  Catilina,  patientia 
nostra?  quamdiu  nos  etiam  furor  iste  tuus  elu- 
det?  quem  ad  finem  sese  effrenata  jactabit  au- 
dacia?  nihilne  te  nocturnum  i)ri>^sidium  i^alatii 
nihil  urbis  vigilia?,  nihil  timor  populi,  nihil 
consensus  bonorum  omnium,  nihil  hie  muni- 
tissimus  habendi  senatus  locus,  nihil  horum  or 
vultusque  moverunt?  patere  tua  consilia  non 

ABCDEFGIIIJKLMNOPaRSTUVWXYZ 
M(B  £1234.367890 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-E(E 

Quousque  tandem  abutere,  Catilina,  patientia 
nostra?  quamdiu  nos  etiam  furor  iste  tuus  elu- 
det?  quem  ad  ^finem  sese  effrenata  jactabit  au- 
dacia?  nihilne  te  nocturnum  pra'sidium  palatii 

334.  Roman  and  Italic:  Ji'.  TJiorowgood'' s  Specimen,  London,  1824 


DOUBLE  PICA  PLAIN  BLACK,  No.  1. 

•anti  f>t  it  fttttfjet  ffctttp  en- 
ncttt),  tijat  ti)c  jWapot^,  33ai 
lift&,  ot  otiytv  f;cati  #fKccr^  of 
e^jttp  ^oton  anlr  place  cotpo 
tate,  ibcing  a  ^ii^tict  or  3^11^ 

DOUBLE  PICA  OPEN  BLACK,  No.  1. 
GREAT  PRIMER  PLAIN  BLACK,  No.  1. 

^tttr  tie  It  fttvttjer  f)riri)g  enacteK,  tbnt 
t!)e  iWagoi*^,  iSatltff^,  or  otiftv  teaTJ 
#fKtei*^  of  coeij?  Zo'mn  nntt  place  cor 
Ijoratc,  anU  eitg  toitijtn  t^t^  mcalm, 
ijcmg  gtt^ttce  or  gusJttcc^  of  peace  $c 

GREAT  PRIMER  OPEN  BLACK,  No.  1. 

Mu^  i&t  it  fitrU|)fir  |)firrt>f  nwaftf ^ 
®l&a$  tit  pja^o*'^?  S^aililf^^  m 
iDitlnr  %mh  #IKf  tr^  lOf  ti^nr^  ^10 
^m  um"^  |)Iaiff  fiarpiorartit  aiwlr 

335.  Black-letter:   IJ^.  Tliorowgood''s  Sjnrimen^  Lomion^  1824 


»' 


Double  Pica. 


2  '^'^A^^^Y^^^^.^^fJ^ 


^)€ 


4  ^l^j^%^g!%;^^^%il!^^jl^^!%^^^ 


\\^p====^ 


8  ^m^^^^s^m^ 

9 

10  ^x 


^■IM |||||||niimN|||||||||liMiil||||||||immi||||||piJ||||||i;^^ 

||ff!lllliSlllliiS!il|)lRfillllii!l::i 


-g  -Ti       g. i|||||||!niHiiii||||||iiii;Hi||||||;|iixiii||||lliii^ll||[|lllg|[|[|||lgl||^ 

11       ^^'-^    .^.^A...^..^..^.^^*,.^^..^^...^^.^! 


||}liiSi]iiS[iiiiSfliiiiSiliiiSiiliBiliiihSffl^ 


16  E^rJi=ii=ll=l|=iidl=ll=Jl=l^ 


i6.  Ornaments  to  accompany  '' Fat- Face''  Ttjpes 
Henry  Caslon,  London^  lS-14 


Two-Line  English. 


10 
11 

12  ^ssaassMa 

13 


Four-Line  Minion,  No.  7. 


337.  Ornaments  to  accomjHimj  ''Fat-Face''  Types 
Henrij  Caslon,  London^  1844 


Pica,  No.  0. 

Quousque  tandem  abutere,  Catilina,  patientia  nos- 
tra? quamdiu  nos  etiam  furor  iste  tuus  eludet? 
quern  ad  fiiiem  sese  effreunta  jactal)it  uudacia?  ui- 
hilne  te  nocturnum  praisidiuui  palatii,  nihil  urbis 
vig'ilite,  niliil  timorpopuli,  nihil  consensus  bonorum 
omnium,  nihil  hie  nnniitissinnis  habendi  senatus 
locus,  nihil  horuni  ora  vultusque  moverunt?  patera 
tua  consilia  non  sentis?  constrictam  jam  omnium 
horum  conscientiateneri  conjurntionem  tuam  non 
\'ides?  quid  proxima,  quid  su})eriore  nocte  eg'eris, 
ubi  fueris,  quos  convocaA'eris,  quid  consilii  ceperis, 
ABCDEFGHLJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZyE 

ABCDEFGPIIJKLMIS'OrQKSTUVlVXYZ.E(E 

£  1234507890 

Quonsqve  tandem  ahutcre,  Catilma,  patientia  nos- 
tra? quamdiu  nos  etiam  furor  iste  tuus  eludet? 
quern  adfiiiem  sese  effrenata  jactabit  audacia?  ni- 
IiiJne  te  nocturnum  jnresidium  palatii,  nildl  urhis 
vigilicCy  nihil  timor populijnildl  consensus  bonorum 
omnium,  nihil  hie  munitissimus  habendi  senatus  lo- 
(yuSy  nihil  horum  ora  vultusque  moverunt?  p)atere 
tua  consilia  non  sentis?  constrictam  jam  omnium 
horum  conscientia  teneri  conjurationem  tuam  non 
vides?  quid  proximay  quid  superiore  nocte  egeris, 
ABCDEFGHIJKL3IN0PQRSTUVWXY 


58  •0-^-###-##-#-# 

338.  Types  and  Oniamcmts  of  Period  of  Cadon  Revival 
Caslon  Son  and  JJvcnuore  and  Henry  Caslon  Sfiecimena,  1844 


ENGLISH  TYPES:  1800-1844  197 

Specimen  issued  in  Paris  in  1 828,  for  like  French  tvpes ;  for 
similar  Italian  fonts,  the  1838  Specimen  of  Cartallier,  of 
Padua,  in  which  some  characters  show  this  tendency.  En- 
schede' s  Letfcrprot^l^  issued  atHaarlem  in  1841, as  compared 
with  older  Enschede  specimens,  is  another  telling  but  dismal 
document  in  the  annuls  of  this  change  of  style  —  a  few  good 
fonts  being  buried  in  pages  of  uninteresting  or  ugly  letter- 
forms.  The  Second  and  Third  Parts  of  Enschede's  Letter- 
proef^  issued  in  1850  and  1855,  leave  one  nothing  to  say, 
except  that  nothing  good  can  be  said  !  But  if  this  great  house 
sold  or  threw  away  interesting  ancient  types  to  buy  Di- 
dotschen  rubbish,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Caslon 
foundry  had  sacrificed  to  False  Gods  its  own  Children! 
(/^.  338). 

I  have  said  that  Grandjean,  Baskerville,  Bodoni,  and 
the  Didots  had  a  mischievous  influence  on  type-forms ;  for 
the  derivations  from  types  that  their  work  made  popular 
culminated  in  a  kind  of  letter  which  was  capable  of  greater 
vulgarity  and  degradation  than  was  ever  the  case  with  older 
fonts.  The  ordinary  English,  French,  or  Italian  book  printed 
between  1830  and  1850  was  very  often  a  cheap  and  mean- 
looking  production.  Perhaps  Bodoni  and  other  great  per- 
sons were  not  wrong  in  their  own  day;  but  they  put  t}pe- 
forms  on  the  wrong  track.  Their  "recovery"  in  England  is 
the  subject  of  another  chapter. 

^ Proevevan  Drukletteren.  Letter gieterij  van  Joh.  Enschede  en  Zonen.  Haar- 
lem, 1841. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

REVIVALS  OF  CASLON  AND   FELL  TYPES 

REVIVALS  of  type-forms  are  periodical.  They  are 
usually  brought  about  by  dissatisfaction  caused 
^  by  too  intimate  knowledge  of  the  disadvantages 
of  types  in  use,  and  ignorance  of  disadvantages  which  may 
arise  in  the  use  of  types  revived.  In  other  words,  one  set  of 
types  falls  into  neglect  through  certain  inherent  draw- 
backs; and  it  is  not  revived  until  the  difficulties  known  to 
those  who  formerly  employed  it  are  forgotten  and  only  the 
advantages  appear.  A  constant  factor  also  is  a  natural  love 
of  variety  and  change. 

The  best  early  work  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the 
result  of  a  sincere  effort  toward  the  betterment  of  printing, 
according  to  the  standards  of  that  day;  but  before  the  mid- 
century,  English  typography,  except  here  and  there,  had 
again  fallen  behind. The  fine  editions  printed  by  Bulmer  and 
Bensley  were  things  of  the  past.  Bulmer  was  dead  in  1830 
— Bensley  in  1833.  Several  other  publishers  brought  out 
well-printed  books,  but  they  were  without  the  distinction  of 
those  issued  some  years  earlier.  There  was,  however,  an  ex- 
ception in  the  work  done  by  the  two  Charles  Whittinghams 
— uncle  and  nephew  —  at  the  Chiswick  Press,  founded  in 
1789,  though  established  at  Chiswick  in  1810.  This  press 
is  famous  in  the  annals  of  English  typography,  the  sound- 
est traditions  of  which  it  has  upheld  for  over  a  century.  Its 
best  books  were  printed  by  the  younger  Whittingham  for 
the  publisher  Pickering.  In  1844,  Pickering  and  Whitting- 
ham proposed  to  issue  an  edition  of  Juvenal  (in  contempla- 
tion since  1841),  and  requested  the  Caslon  foundry  to  cast 
some  of  the  original  Caslon  types  which  they  wanted  for  it. 
This  Latin  edition  of  the  Satires  of  Juvenal  and  Persius,  in 


JLady  Willoughby. 


her  Cheeke  by  fome  Query  refpedling  a  parti- 
cular Piece  of  Needle-work  in  hand;  and 
added,  on  perceiving  the  Effed:  fhe  had  pro- 
duced, fhe  had  heard  S"^,  Rraf7nus  de  la  Foun- 
tain much  commend  the  delicate  Paterne: 
whereat  poore  Margaret  attempted  to  look  up 
unconcern'd,  but  was  obliged  to  fmile  at  her 
Sifter's  Pleafantry.  I  was  difcreet,  and  led  the 
Converfation  back  to  the  Spinning. 

The  Days  pafie  fmoothly,  yet  Time  feemeth 
very  long  fince  my  deare  Lord  departed  on  his 
Journey.  We  heare  no  News.  Armjlrong  will 
perchance  gain  fome  Ty dings  at  Colchejler: 
and  I  muft  await  his  Return  with  fuch  Patience 
I  can. 

Since  my  little  Fanny  s  long  Sicknefle  I  have 
continued  the  Habit  of  remaining  by  her  at 
night,  fometime  after  fhe  is  in  Bed:  thefe  are 
Seafons  peculiarly  fweet  and  foothing;  there 
feemeth  fomething  holy  in  the  Aire  of  the 
dimly  lighted  Chamber^  wherein  is  no  Sound 

heard 


339.  Cadon  Type  as  revived  hi/  Whittingham^  London^  1844 


CASLON  AND  FELL  REVIVALS         199 

quarto  (a  handsome  book  except  for  its  red  borders),  was 
delayed,  however,  and  not  published  until  1845. So  the  great 
primer  "old  face"  Caslon  font  intended  for  it,  appeared  first 
in  1844  in  The  Diary  of  Lady  JVilloughby.  For  this  fictitious 
journal  of  a  seventeenth  century  lady  of  quality,  old  style 
type  was  thought  approjjriate.The  Diary  w  as  a  success,  ar- 
tistically and  commercially.  Though  its  typograjjliy  does  not 
seem  much  of  an  achievement  now,  it  came  as  a  novelty  and 
relief  to  printers  ^\■ho  had  long  since  abandoned  good  earlier 
type-faces  in  favour  of  the  fonts  of  the  school  of  Thorne 
(.A^"-  339).  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  revival  of  original 
Caslon  fonts,  and  a  very  sound  revival  it  was.  From  that 
time  to  this,  Caslon  type  has  had  the  popularity  it  merits. 
In  fact,  the  chief  typographic  event  of  the  mid-nineteenth 
century  was  this  revival  of  the  earliest  Caslon  types  in  the 
competent  hands  of  Pickering  and  Whittingham.  United 
States  founders  reintroduced  these  fonts  about  1860,  but 
they  did  not  become  popular  until  some  thirty  years  later. 
The  Aldine  Poets,  Walton's  Complete  Angler^  the  beauti- 
ful Latin  Opera  of  Sallust  (in  the  type  of  the  Juvenal  and 
Lady  Willoiighby\  an  octavo  edition  of  Milton  and  Herbert, 
and  the  famous  series  of  folio  black-letter  Prayer  Books  are 
among  the  best  of  Pickering's  publications.  But  the  series 
of  16mo  volumes,  which  for  beauty  and  utility  have  not  been 
surpassed  in  modern  times,  are  Mhat  is  particularly  meant 
by  a  "Pickering  edition"  {jig.  340).  All  these  were  printed 
at  the  Chiswick  Press,  as  well  as  many  other  beautiful  books 
for  publishers,  book-clubs,  and  individuals — among  them 
the  Bannatyne  Club's  Brevianun  Aberdonense  and  Henry 
Shaw's  books  on  mediaeval  alphabets  and  ornament.  The 
Chiswick  Press  still  holds  preeminent  rank  —  the  present 
establishment  at  Tooks  Court,  Chancery  Lane,  London, 
being  conducted  by  Charles  Whittingham  and  Griggs,  Ltd. 


200  PRINTING  TYPES 

The  use  of  the  Fell  types,  which  had  lain  for  many  years 
neglected  at  the  Oxford,University  Press,  was  revived  by  a 
little  press  (first  started  atFromein  1845,  and  continued  at 
Oxford)  which  was  a  private  venture  of  the  Rev.  C.  H.  O. 
Daniel,  late  Provost  of  Worcester  College.  Dr.  Daniel  had 
the  taste  to  recognize  the  possibilities  dormant  in  Fell's  fonts, 
and  after  1877  he  used  them  in  his  rare  little  issues  with 
delightful  discrimination  {Jigs.  341  ami  342).  The  Daniel 
books  were  printed  in  both  roman  and  black-letter,  and  in 
connection  with  the  former  type  many  pleasant  old  orna- 
ments were  revived.  The  publications  of  this  press  were 
continued  until  1919.^  The  Fell  types  are  now  the  pride  — 
or  one  of  the  "  prides" —  of  the  Clarendon  Press.  Their  re- 
vival was  of  real  importance  in  modern  printing.  The  Ox- 
ford  Book  of  English  Ferse,  the  volumes  in  the  Tudor  and 
Stuart  Library,  the  Trecentale  Bodleianum  of  19 1 3  {jig-  343), 
and  the  Catalogue  of  the  Shakespeare  Exhibition  held  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  to  commemorate  the  Death  of  Shakespeare 
(Oxford,  1916)  are  familiar  examples  of  their  admirable  and 
effective  modern  use. 

The  Ballantyne  Press  of  Edinburgh,  founded  at  Kelso  by 
James  Ballantyne  in  1796,  later,  at  Sir  Walter  Scott's  sug- 
gestion, coming  to  Edinburgh,  and  known  under  the  name 
of  Ballantyne,  Hanson  &  Company,  has  done  delightful 
work  for  many  years  past.  The  business  has  been  acquired 
by  Messrs.  Spottiswoode  &  Company  of  London,  and  has 
been  removed  from  Edinburgh.  This  firm,  that  of  Messrs. 
R.  &  R.  Clark,  and  the  establishment  of  T.  &  A.  Constable 
of  Edinburgh,  have  been  more  constant  to  types  of  Scotch 

'  See  The  Daniel  Press.  Memorials  of  C.  H.  O.  Daniel,  with  a  Bibliografihy 
of  the  Press,  1845-1919.  Oxford,  Printed  on  the  Daniel  F^ess  in  the  Bod- 
leian Library,  1921  —  "  the  first  book  printed  within  the  walls  of  the  Bod- 
leian," where  the  third  Daniel  press,  on  which  it  was  printed,  is  deposited.  It 
is  illustrated  with  portrait,  facsimiles,  etc. 


I.    THE  TEMPLE 

The  Dedication. 

Lord,  my  frj} fruits  prefent  th em f elves  to  thee; 
Yet  not  mine  neither :  for  from  thee  they  came. 
And  muf  return.     Accept  of  them  and  me. 
And  make  us  f  rive,  who  pall  fng  left  thy  name. 
Turn  their  eyes  hither,  who  fiall  make  a  gain  ^ 
Theirs,  who  pall  hurt  thcrnf elves  or  me,  refrain. 

I.  The  Church-porch. 

Perirrhanterium. 

HOU,  whofe  fvveet  youth  and  early 
hopes  inhance 
Thy  rate  and  price,  and  mark  thee  for 
a  trcafurc. 

Hearken  unto  a  Verfcr,  who  may  chance 
Ryme  thee  to  good,  and  make  a  bait  of  pleafure  . 
A  verfe  may  finde  him,  who  a  fermon  flies, 
And  turn  dehght  into  a  facrifice. 

Beware  of  hift;  it  doth  pollute  and  foul 

Whom  God  in  Baptifme  wafht  with  his  own  blood 

It  blots  thy  lefTon  written  in  thy  foul ; 

The  holy  lines  cannot  be  underflood. 
How  dare  thofe  eyes  upon  a  Bible  lookj 
MuchlcfTe  towards  God,  whofcluftis  all  their  book! 


340.  Ccislon  Type  tisvd  in  a  ""Pickering  edition'" 
Whittingluim^  London.,  1850 


»    h 


Si       ^ 


S     - 


;^     R 


S^ 


'G 


^ 


&f^ 


[i       <D       'i 
^     ^     ^ 


^ 


<3 


U 


5 


ft  Oj 


-,     fx,     «a 


^     ft    <* 


5^    t^o   C 


I- 


f> 


!>    •-- 


^  ►$ 


? 


I       -^-^3 


~<3 


C-    ^ 


C      Q 


«J      Uh 


cfl    '0   ^ 


o 


"k  h   g 


£   _: 


^ 


U 


fN 


^ 


^ 


u< 


00 


O 


a^ 


§ 


-^ 


:~      Q 


"t-^ 


ft 


^ 


H^  ^ 


3-s 


^^ 


•i!    O 


-Si 


^ 

^ 

^ 

5 


I- 


7^5 

'So 


<5s 


^       ^       >*• 


•ii    <^ 


ft 


~5>       Ci 


<=:    ^^   •- 


2  s  ■? 

-<1   .1 


-4: 


13 


^ 


-b 


-     ^,-       P 


l-b 


i^ 


■^"^ 


"?    ^ 


S  <i    s>    ft 


S     ft 


J*  ^  ~« 


-TV 

X 


^ 


'^ 


ti; 


CO 


'>i**     <*>rv^     "^tP     '•)xif^     'rk"^**     "^iP     '^riP  ^r 

V;-'^^    //^'Sv    '/^^'^N'^  V<^^i/     ^^^  i^"^:    ■6^'^ 

>i^«  wsf  Vv  W/T^  V  i'zf^^'  <^:^^\i>  ^j^\y  "^'yf^^^  "^^ 

«^«i  w^^rl   itf^^ii  ,(J^l^N«^  ,i«>a.-i^   l»^>«^W   (B^^*^ 

(»j(tJ|^      (J^-'V)      dJ*--*!:)      (J^-t^      (!>^      cT^^i.    .  tA 


MARGARET  L.  WOODS 


DANIEL  :     OXFORD  t 


iScjdT 


9^. 


342.  Fell  Types  as  used  by  the  Daniel  Press 
Oxford^  1896 


THE 

LIFE  of  Sir  Thomas  Bodley ^ 
Written  by  himself. 

I  Was  borne  at  Exeter  in  Devon,  the  £.^>-/>  ///«. 
2  of  Marche,  in  the  yeare  1^44; 
descended,  both  by  Father  and 
Mother,  of  Worshipful!  parentage.  By 
my  Fathers  side,  from  an  antient  familie 
of  Bodley,  or  bodleigh,.  of  Dunscombe 
by  Crediton ;  and  by  my  Mother  from 
Robert  Hone  Esqj  of  ottereySamt  Mane, 
nine  Milles  from  Exon.  My  Father  in 
the  time  of  Queene  Marie,  beinge  knovvnc 
and  noted  to  be  an  enemie  to  Poperie, 
was  so  cruelly  threatned,  and  so  narrow- 
lie  observed,  by  those  that  malliced  his 
religion,  that  for  the  safegarde  of  him- 
selfe,  and  my  Mother,  who  was  wholly 
affected  as  my  Father,  he  knew  no  waye 
so  secure,  as  to  flie  into  Garmanie  : 
B  2  Where 


343.  Fell  Tiffyes  an  rised  in  Trecentale  Rodleiamim 
Oxford  University  Press ^  1913 


o  cj 

^      4-. 

bX)  oj 
a  ""• 
o  *-» 
c   ^ 

^  t: 


<u    > 


rt    0) 


< 


A,     <!-> 


-n  — ' 


<u 


(U   o 


c/5 

O   2 


.  —  ^ 

cj  rt 

U  <U 

C  -^ 

•  _<  4-1 
■b-l       1-1 

_       4-1  l- 

o  O 

O  '-*-' 

o  ^ 


1-1      L. 

OJ    <u 
■^    rv 

^1 


O  7 

o  ^  c 


-^    y-"    r-    r3  •-- 


.ii    «^ 


(-C 


<u  2 


^      C      3 

B  ,^  o 

X>  M  r^ 

>*  o  ^ 


c/l  ii 


»  <u 


s:^ 


c 

4-1     • ' 

u   o 


<U     '' 

bJD_, 


>.  (U   c    • '  o 
rt  ^   o   ^^ 


(U 


$^  p  i-    - 1:  p  *-  = 


2  rt  o  ■- 


6  o-o-^ 


^  3  :^=  c 


OJ 

u, 

OJ 

<u 

v_ 

4-1 

f-; 

iJ 

r- 

4-< 

rt 

^ 

Q 

o 

'  l_. 

o 

w 


Oh     O 


Oh 


03-5 


c 

(U 
o   ^^> 

fc/)  c  •]  o 


O    ^    "3    C    3 
-    OJ    G     o 

'E  a-<  ^  ^ 

<  -z:  >.^  ^ 

c  c  ^  o  o 

?^  c  ?^  c  J 


CJ  ^^  ^  S?  O 


.i^  ^  :q 


(U 

o  o 


^  .-  2  a  t/5 


(U 


rttu. 


^      t/5      C     4-1 

o   c   C  ^    <u 

3    nj    nj    biO-G 


5^.£  <u 

o  >> 

r-      CJ   -C 

4->      CO  > 

t;  <^ 

cr-^  •- 
<u   aj   oj 


n 

-d 

c 


0 

<u 

0 
0 

CJ 

SC3 

t3 

C 
ct3 

as  hi 
cond 

^■' 

(U 

^ 

^" 

to 

.2f 

t/) 

OJ 

^  J= 

^ 

o  -^  -r  .- 
;=;  u  -  J-. 

,«  CQ  •  -    3 

^    <u 

£  -  ^'3 

.«^         «H 

>-  (U    ^^o 

^'^  <u  3 

"    O    OJ    C 
OJ     CO 


o 


"^    rt    >    o 


o 


g 


CO 


Co 


^ 

O 


L) 

^ 

^ 
^ 


kT 

^ 


>5         ^ 


^ 


4  ^ 

^  ^ 

.^^ 


«s 


•Si  ^ 


J^ 


"Si 


^ 


'^  ^*  ^^  ."^    f!, 

^    «    1^  ^       ^   ^ 


^    5i 


►^  -^  -^ 


^    ^ 


<3    ^ 


^ 


•^  "rS  -^  ^  "^  ^: 

^V|    ^    «    c.    ^ 


^ 
.^ 


k 

^>§ 


<» 


•^^ 
k 

^ 

^ 


'So 


^*^ 

5^? 

h:::    ^ 


<3 


No 


>:»  <$  ^  A    ^ 


5!i 


^  ^ 


"^ 


«  ^  ^  ^  ^. 


cv 

■Si    Jo 


"So 


"5J 


.^      "^      ^ 
^^t^ 


^• 


>5 


«3 
?    ^    -^ 

'^    C  » 

<^    ^    vS 


to   ■  «o 


^ 


:5 


^ 


N  CERTAIN  CONFUSIONS  OF 
MODERN  LIFE,  ESPECIALLY 
IN  LITERATURE:  AN  ESSAY 
READ,  AT  OXFORD,  TO  THE 
GRYPHON  CLUB  OF  TRINITY 
COLLEGE. 

If  I  were  in  need  of  a  single  word  to 
express  the  idea  which  I  wish  to  follow  out  in  this  essay,  I 
could  scarcely,  I  think,  find  one  in  English  ;  none,  at  least, 
that  would  completely  fit  my  meaning  :  I  should  have  to  fall 
back  upon  the  Greek.  We  translate  the  word  Koa-fxog  by  order, 
bemity,  or  world,  according  to  the  context ;  but  we  have  no 
single  phrase  that  combines  and  identifies  in  our  minds,  as 
this  word  did  in  the  minds  of  Greeks,  the  beauty  of  harmo- 
nious arrangement  with  the  beauty  of  the  visible  world.  We 
do  not  seem,  indeed,  to  have  at  all  the  same  quick  perception 
of  this  kind  of  beauty  that  they  appear  to  have  had.  The 
Author  of  "  Modern  Painters  "  has  pointed  out  that,  in  the 
Odyssey,  when  Hermes  approaches  Calypso's  cave,  what  he 
admires  is,  not  so  much  the  wild  beauty  of  the  island,  as  the 
trimness  of  the  goddess's  own  domain,  her  four  fountains 


345.  Type  used  in  The  Hobby  Horse:  Chisrvick  Press^  London^  1890 


CASLON  AND  FELL  REVIVALS         201 

letter-founders,  and  for  many  years  have  successfully  used 
"revived  old  style"  and  also  characters  of  the  modern  face 
family.'  Constable  employed  an  interesting  Scotch  modern 
face  for  David  Nutt's  distinguished  series  of  Tudor  Trans- 
lations. The  fine  revived  old  style  or  (as  I  should  prefer  to 
call  them)  modernized  old  style  fonts  were  used  by  the  same 
printer  in  the  three  volumes  of  BiUiographica  (1895);  and 
Mr.  J.  P.  Morgan's  monumental  Catalogue  of  Manuscripts 
and  Early  Printed  Books  from  the  Libraries  of  Aloiris,  Ben- 
nett, etc.  (1907),  is  a  magnificent  example  of  the  skilful  use 
of  these  types  by  the  Chiswick  Press.  In  smaller  sizes  this 
type  was  delightfully  employed  by  the  same  press  in  their 
reprint  of  Sir  Henry  Wotton's  Elements  of  Architecture, 
issued  by  Longmans  in  1903  {fg.  344). 

But  the  early  and  "classic"  use  of  this  type  was  in  Her- 
bert Home's  periodical,  The  Century  Guild  Hobby  Horse 
(1886-92).  Its  later  volumes  (beginning  in  1888),  printed  in 
a  large  size  of  the  "modernized  old  style"  character,  with 
delightful  decorations  drawn  by  Mr.  Home,  are  most  dis- 
tinguished pieces  of  typography  {fg.  345).  Of  The  Hobby 
Horse  not  many  volumes  were  issued,  but  they  will  always 
hold  a  place  in  the  annals  of  the  revival  of  printing  at  the 
end  of  the  last  century. 

In  Mr.  Home's  typographical  venture,  William  Mor- 
ris had  a  hand ;  but  as  Morris  rode  a  very  Gothic  hobby- 
horse of  his  own,  and  Mr.  Home's  charger  was  much  more 
Italian  than  Gothic  in  its  behaviour,  it  is  easy  to  see  why 
Morris  soon  turned  his  attention  to  printing  in  a  way  more 
to  his  mind.  His  endeavours,  their  results,  and  the  influ- 
ence they  have  had  on  modern  printing  have  now  to  be  con- 
sidered. 

'  In  England  Caslon  types  are  called  "old  face";  what  we  call  **  modernized 
old  style"  is  tliere  termed  "  revived  old  style" — a  type  designetl  about  1850. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

ENGLISH    AND   AMERICAN    REVIVAL  OF   EARLY  TYPE- 
FORMS  AND   ITS  EFFECT  ON   CONTINENTAL  TYPES 

WILLIAM  Morris  was  born  in  1834  —  the  son 
of  prosperous  middle-class  people,  who  lived 
freely  and  pleasantly.  He  was  educated  at  Marl- 
borough School  and  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  \vhere  he  formed 
a  lasting  friendship  with  Burne- Jones.  Originally  intending 
to  take  Holy  Orders,  he  changed  his  mind,  and  studied  ar- 
chitecture for  a  year  or  two  under  Street;  then,  between  1857 
and  1862,  through  Rossetti's  influence,  he  took  up  painting. 
Meanwhile  he  had  begun  to  write — his  Defence  of  Guene- 
vere  appearing  in  1858.  From  then  until  his  death  he  wrote 
many  volumes  of  poetry  and  prose,  most  of  it  of  a  very  high 
order.  Painting  proved  unsatisfactory,  so  he  began  about 
the  year  1870  to  work  as  a  decorator,  eventually  turning  his 
hand  to  illumination,  —  in  which  he  was  expert,  —  to  the 
making  of  wall-papers,  rugs,  hangings,  and  stained  glass, 
and  to  house  decoration.  It  was  an  era  of  pattern,  and  though 
in  Morris's  hands  the  pattern  was  often  magnificent,  houses 
decorated  or  furnished  by  him  would  now  appear  rather 
tiresome  and  aifected. 

In  socialism  Morris  was  seriously  interested.  It  was  the 
somewhat  romantic  socialism  of  a  well-to-do,  fastidious  man, 
which  had  the  added  attraction  of  placing  him  in  the  oppo- 
sition ;  for  he  somewhat  enjoyed  "otherwise-mindedness." 
Morris  never  went  into  the  slums  and  lived  with  the  people 
— indeed,  he  gave  scant  attention  to  the  particular  individ- 
ual in  his  large  and  roomy  movements  —  it  was  not  the 
manner  of  his  time.  He  desired  with  great  desire  to  see 
the  life  of  workmen  improved  by  being  made  more  like  his 
own,  rather  than  to  get  nearer  the  workmeri^s  point  of  view 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  203 

by  making  his  life  more  like  theirs.  Yet  he  was  thoroughly 
in  earnest  about  his  socialism.  That  the  workman's  life  was 
so  sordid  made  him  miserable.  He  loved  mediaevalism 
because  it  appeared  to  him  —  I  think  rather  unhistorically 
—  a  close  approach  to  the  life  he  wished  to  see  commonly 
lived  in  the  world.  None  the  less,  he  had  sometimes  impos- 
sible manners,  often  a  furious  temper,  always  short  patience 
with  fools,  and  there  was  a  bit  of  pose  and  "bow-wow" 
about  his  daily  walk  and  conversation.  In  his  character,  as  in 
his  wall-papers,  one  was  a  little  too  conscious  of  the  pattern, 
but  the  pattern  was  fine,  and  there  was  lots  of  it!  Over  and 
above  all  this  he  was  an  educated,  cultivated  man,  tremen- 
dously observant  and  shrewd,  and  his  driving  power  was 
enormous.  Like  Bodoni  (whose  work  Morris  detested),  no 
man  knew  better  what  he  wanted  to  do.  Morris's  motto  was 
"  If  I  can,"  and  by  hard  work,  enthusiasm,  and  — we  must 
admit  —  a  fixed  income  and  a  good  deal  of  incidental  pros- 
perity, he  usually  "could." 

Morris's  style  of  printing,  therefore,  may  be  partly  ex- 
plained by  the  interiors  of  his  own  houses  or  those  he  deco- 
rated ;  and  lis  motive  hy\\\s  idea  of  socialism,  which,  through 
a  kind  of  Religion  of  Beauty,  was  to  produce  the  regenera- 
tion of  a  work-a-day  world.  It  was  to  be  a  wonderful  world, 
and  it  was,  potentially,  very  real  to  him.  His  printing  was 
for  it,  or  was  to  help  to  its  realization  by  others.  If  his  deco- 
rations now  appear  a  bit  mannered  and  excessive,  and  his 
socialism  somewhat  romantic  and  unreal,  it  is  because  Mor- 
ris was  very  much  of  his  period.  Thus  (again  like  Bodoni, 
though  from  diametrically  opposite  theories)  Morris  made 
magnificent  books,  but  not  for  ordinary  readers — nor,  for 
the  matter  of  that,  for  ordinary  purses — but  only  for  a  cer- 
tain fortunate  group  of  his  own  time. 

To  understand  the  work  of  the  Kelmscott  Press  we  must 


204  PRINTING  TYPES 

understand  this  much  of  the  environment  and  ways  of 
thinking  of  a  man  as  forcible  and  sincere  as  he  was  many- 
sided. 

Some  years  before  Mr.  Morris  set  up  any  press  of  his  own, 
he  had  made  a  few  essays  in  printing.  The  Roots  of  the 
Mountains^  which  was  issued  in  1889,  was  printed  yor  him 
at  the  Chiswick  Press  in  a  character  cut  some  fifty  years 
earHer,  belonging  to  the  Whittinghams,  and  modelled  on 
an  old  Basle  font;  and  in  1890,  the  Gunnlaug  Saga  was 
printed  in  a  type  copied  from  one  of  Caxton's  fonts.  In  1891, 
almost  fifty  years  after  the  Whittinghams'  revival  of  Cas- 
lon's  type,  and  some  fifteen  years  after  the  Fell  types  were 
resuscitated,  Morris  established  the  Kelmscott  Press,  named 
after  Kelmscott  Manor  House  (on  the  upper  Thames,  about 
thirty  miles  from  Oxford),  which  Morris  acquired  in  1871. 
The  first  "Kelmscott"  book  that  he  issued  was  The  Story  of 
the  Glittering  F/aifi,  and  its  effect  upon  lovers  of  fine  books 
was  instantaneous.  Opinion  was  at  once  divided  about  Mor- 
ris's printing.  To  a  limited  public,  the  Kelmscott  editions 
opened  the  millennium  in  book-making.  Others  were  irri- 
tated at  what  they  considered  their  affectation  and  faddish- 
ness,  and  condemned  them  utterly,  as  unreadable — which 
was  only  a  half-truth.  The  effect  on  printing  in  general  that 
Morris  was  to  have  through  his  types  and  type-setting  en- 
tirely escaped  most  printers,  as  did  the  sources  from  which 
he  derived  his  methods.  Because  they  knew  very  little  about 
early  manuscripts  or  early  books,  about  the  characters  of  the 
one  or  the  types  of  the  other,  the  Kelmscott  books  appeared 
to  them  to  have  fallen  from  the  sky  —  either  very  new  and 
wonderful  or  else  very  freakish  and  senseless — just  as  they 
would  to  anybody  who  knew  nothing  whatever  about  it !  On 
the  great  English  public,  or  the  majority  of  English  print- 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  205 

ers,  Morris's  books  had  —  at  that  time — scarcely  any  effect 
at  all.  Indeed,  Mr.  Morris  was  a  much  more  widespread 
popular  force  in  America  and  Germany  than  in  England, 
where  his  work  was  known  only  to  a  comparatively  small 
artistic  group. 

"I  began  printing  books,"  said  Mr.  Morris,  "with  the 
hope  of  producing  some  which  would  have  a  definite  claim 
to  beauty,  while  at  the  same  time  they  should  be  easy  to  read 
and  should  not  dazzle  the  eye,  or  trouble  the  intellect  of  the 
reader  by  eccentricity  of  form  in  the  letters.  I  have  always 
been  a  great  admirer  of  the  calligraphy  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  of  the  earlier  printing  which  took  its  place.  As  to  the  fif- 
teenth century  books,  I  had  noticed  that  they  were  always 
beautiful  by  force  of  the  mere  typography,  even  without  the 
added  ornament,  with  which  many  of  them  are  so  lavishly 
supplied.  And  it  was  the  essence  of  my  undertaking  to  pro- 
duce books  which  it  would  be  a  pleasure  to  look  upon  as 
pieces  of  printing  and  arrangement  of  type.  Looking  at  my 
adventure  from  this  point  of  view  then,  I  found  I  had  to 
consider  chiefly  the  following  things :  the  paper,  the  form  of 
the  type,  the  relative  spacing  of  the  letters,  the  words,  and 
the  lines ;  and  lastly  the  position  of  the  printed  matter  on  the 
page 

"Next  as  to  type.  By  instinct  rather  than  by  conscious 
thinking  it  over,  I  began  by  getting  myself  a  fount  of  Ro- 
man type.  And  here  what  I  wanted  was  letter  pure  in  form; 
severe,  without  needless  excrescences ;  solid,  without  the 
thickening  and  thinning  of  the  line,  which  is  the  essential 
fault  of  the  ordinary  modern  type,  and  which  makes  it  dif- 
ficult to  read ;  and  not  compressed  laterally,  as  all  later  type 
has  grown  to  be  owing  to  commercial  exigencies.  There  was 
only  one  source  from  which  to  take  examples  of  this  per- 
fected Roman  type,  to  wit,  the  works  of  the  great  Venetian 


206  PRINTING  TYPES 

printers  of  the  fifteenth  century,  of  whom  Nicholas  Jenson 
produced  the  completest  and  most  Roman  characters  from 
1470  to  1476. This  type  I  studied  with  much  care,  getting  it 
photographed  to  a  big  scale,  and  drawing  it  over  many  times 
before  I  began  designing  my  own  letter;  so  that  though 
I  think  I  mastered  the  essence  of  it,  I  did  not  copy  it  ser- 
vilely; in  fact,  my  Roman  type,  especially  in  the  lower  case, 
tends  rather  more  to  the  Gothic  than  does  Jenson's. 

"  After  a  while  I  felt  that  I  must  have  a  Gothic  as  well 
as  a  Roman  fount;  and  herein  the  task  I  set  myself  was  to 
redeem  the  Gothic  character  from  the  charge  of  unreadable- 
ness  which  is  commonly  brought  against  it.  And  I  felt  that 
this  charge  could  not  be  reasonably  brought  against  the 
types  of  the  first  two  decades  of  printing ;  that  Schoeffer  at 
Mainz,  Mentelin  at  Strasburg,and  GuntherZainer  at  Augs- 
burg, avoided  the  spiky  ends  and  undue  compression  which 
lay  some  of  the  later  type  open  to  the  above  charge.  .  .  . 
Keeping  my  end  steadily  in  view,  I  designed  a  black-letter 
type  which  I  think  I  may  claim  to  be  as  readable  as  a 
Roman  one,  and  to  say  the  truth  I  prefer  it  to  the  Roman. 

"  It  was  only  natural  that  I,  a  decorator  by  profession, 
should  attempt  to  ornament  my  books  suitably:  about  this 
matter,  I  will  only  say  that  I  have  always  tried  to  keep  in 
mind  the  necessity  for  making  my  decoration  a  part  of  the 
page  of  type."  ^ 

Morris's  three  types  (two  black-letter  and  one  roman) 
were  as  follows  : 

A  roman  letter,  called  the  Golden  Type,  cut  in  English 
size,  finished  in  1890,  and  first  used  in  his  Golden  Legend, 
issued  in  1892  (/^,  346). 

^  A  J^Tote  by  William  Morris  on  his  Aims  in  Founding-  the  Kelmscott  Press. 
Together  with  a  Short  Description  of  the  Press  hy  S.  C.  Cockerell,  Isf  an 
Annotated  List  of  the  Books  Printed  Thereat.  Hammersmith,  London,  1908. 


THE  ARGUMENT. 

UCIUSTarquinius  (forhisexccS" 
sive  pride  surnamedSuperbus)afx 
ter  hee  had  caused  his  owne  father 
in  law  Servius  Tulh'us  to  be  cruelly 
murd'red,and  contrarie  to  the  Ro^ 
maine  lawes  and  customes,  not  re^ 
quiring  or  staying  for  the  people's  suffrages,  had 
possessed  himselie  of  the  kingdome :  wentaccom" 
panyed  with  his  sonnes  and  other  noble  men  of 
Rome,  to  besiege  Ardea,  during  which  siege,  the 
pn'ncipall  men  of  the  Army  meeting  one  evening 
at  the  tent  of  SextusTarquinius  the  king's  sonnc, 
in  their  discourses  after  supper  every  one  comment 
ded  the  vertues  of  his  owne  wife:  among  whom 
Colatinus  extolled  the  incomparable  chastity  of 
his  wife  Lucretia.  In  that  pleasant  humor  they  all 
posted  to  Rome,  &  intending  bv  theyr  secret  and 
sodainearrivall  to  maketriall  or  that  which  every 
one  had  before  avouched,  onely  Colatinus  finds 
his  wife  (though  itwere  late  in  the  night)  spinning 
amongest  her  maides,  the  other  ladies  were  all 
found  dauncing  and  revelling,  or  in  severall  dis" 
ports:  whereupon  the  noble  men  yeelded  Cola^ 
tinus  the  victory,  and  his  wife  the  fame.  At  that 
time  SextusTarquiniusbeingenflamed  with  Lu^ 
crece  beauty,  yet  smoothering  his  passions  for  the 
present,  departed  with  the  rest  backe  to  the  campe : 

55 

346.  Morris's  Golden  Type:  Kelmscott  Press 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  207 

A  black-letter  great  primer  font,  called  the  Troy  Type, 
showing  the  influence  of  Schoeffer  of  Mainz,  Zainer  of 
Augsburg,  and  Koberger  of  Nuremberg,  although  difi'erent 
from  any  of  these,  and  first  used  in  the  Historyes  of  Trvye^ 
issued  the  same  year  {Jig.  347)- 

A  black-letter,  called  the  Chaucer  Type,  differing  from 
the  Troy  type  only  in  size,  being  pica  instead  of  great 
primer.  This  was  used  in  some  parts  of  the  Ilistnryes  of 
Tivye^  but  was  first  employed  for  an  entire  book  in  The 
Order  of  Chivalry,  published  in  1893  (/^.  348). 

Morris  also  designed  a  fourth  type,  based  on  the  fonts 
used  by  Sweynheym  and  Pannartz  in  St.  Augustine's  De 
Civitate  Dei,  but  it  was  never  cut.  All  Morris's  types  were 
finally  lefl  to  trustees,  and  their  use  is  occasionally  permitted 
for  special  books.  The  wood-blocks  of  illustrations  to  his 
editions  have  been  placed  in  the  British  Museum. 

As  we  look  at  Morris's  typographical  achievements  in  per- 
spective, they  seem  to  be  more  those  of  a  decorator  apply- 
ing his  decorative  talents  to  printing,  than  the  work  of  a 
printer.  His  books  are  not  always  what  he  said  books  should 
be — easy  to  read,  not  dazzling  to  the  eye,  or  troublesome 
to  the  reader  by  eccentricities  of  letter-form.  He  says  he 
admired  fifteenth  century  books  because  they  were  beau- 
tiful "by  force  of  the  mere  typography,  even  without  the 
added  ornament,  with  which  many  of  them  are  so  lavishly 
supplied."  But  what  is  true  of  those  books  is  only  partly 
true  about  his  own.  He  did  make  books  which  it  was  a  plea- 
sure to  look  at  —  as  arrangements  of  type  and  fine  pieces  of 
printing  —  but  he  did  not  make  books  that  it  was  a  pleasure 
to  read.  If  Morris  admired  Jenson's  fonts,  it  is  hard  to  see 
why  he  did  not  copy  their  best  points  more  closely.  One  has 
only  to  take  a  Kelmscott  book  and  compare  it  with  a  good 


208  PRINTING  TYPES 

specimen  of  Jensen's  printing  to  see  how  far  away  one  is 
from  the  other. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  people  did  not  at  all  under- 
stand Morris's  greatness  —  for  great  he  was.  As  he  was  both 
visionary  and  practical,  his  visions  bothered  the  practical 
man,  while  his  practicality  somewhat  disturbed  the  vision- 
ary. "Perhaps  this  kind  of  character  is  rare  in  our  time,"  says 
Mr.  Clutton-Brock,  "only  because  craftsmen  are  rare;  for 
the  craftsman,  if  he  is  to  excel,  must  be  both  industrious 
and  a  visionary,  as  Morris  was.  He  must  have  honesty  and 
common  sense  as  well  as  invention;  and  his  work  devel- 
ops and  harmonizes  both  sets  of  qualities.  We  shall  under- 
stand Morris  best  if  we  think  of  him  as  a  craftsman,  .  .  . 
as  one  who  could  never  see  raw  material  without  wishing  to 
make  something  out  of  it,  and  who  at  last  saw  society  itself 
as  a  very  raw  material  which  set  his  fingers  itching."^ 

I  doubt  if  Morris  himself  realized  the  enormous  effect  his 
work  would  have  upon  typography.  Neither  did  he  know 
that,  while  his  types  were  not  particularly  good  types,  and 
his  decorations  were  often  unduly  heavy,  by  this  very  over- 
statement in  the  colour  of  the  type  on  its  paper,  in  making 
characters  which  loudly  called  attention  to  earlier  ones,  and 
in  designing  somewhat  over-splendid  decorations  (which, 
nevertheless,  were  in  harmony  with  his  type),  he  led  the 
printer  of  his  particular  moment  to  see  how  imposing,  and 
even  magnificent,  masses  of  strong  type,  closely  set  and  well 
inked,  combined  with  fine  decorations,  may  be.  And  Morris 
taught  a  lesson  in  the  unity  of  effect  in  books  for  which  the 
modern  printer  is  deeply  in  his  debt — a  unity  now  influ- 
encing volumes  very  far  removed  from  those  rather  precious 
productions  in  which  it  was  first  exemplified.  Nowadays, 

*  William  Morris:  His  Work  and  Injluence,  by  A.  Clutton-Brock,  London, 
1914,  p. 208. 


such  as  choose  to  scch  it:  it  is  neither 
prison,  nor  palace,  butadecent  home. 

LL  camcn  i  jsei/ 

XIRBR  praise  nor 
blame,  but  say  that 
so  itis:some  people 
praise  this  homeli- 
ness overmuch,  as 
if  the  land  were  the 
very  axle/tree  of  the 
world;  so  do  not  I, nor  any  unblind- 
ed  by  pride  in  themselvesandall  that 
belongs  to  them :  others  there  are  who 
scorn  it  and  the  tameness  of  it:  not 
1  any  the  more:  though  it  would  in- 
deed be  hard  if  there  were  nothing 
else  in  the  world, no  wonders,  no  ter- 
rors, no  unspeakable  beauties.  Y^^ 
when  we  think  what  a  small  part  of 
the  world's  history,  past,  present,  & 
to  come,  is  this  land  we  live  in,  and 
howmuch  smaller  still  in  the  history 
of  the  arts,  &  yet  how  our  forefathers 
clung  to  it,  and  with  what  care  and 

67 


347.  Morris'' s  Troy  Type:  Kelmscott  Press 


pams  tbcy  adorned  It,  this  unromantic,  un- 
eventful/looking landofengland,  surely  by 
this  too  our  hearts  may  be  touched  and  our 

hope  quickened, 

OR  as  was  the  land, 
such  was  the  art  of  it 
while  folk  yet  troub- 
led themselves  about 
such  things ;  it  strove 
little  to  impress  peo- 
ple either  by  pomp  or 
ingenuity :  not  unsel- 
dom  it  fell  into  com- 
monplace,rarely  itrose 
into  majesty ;  yetwas  it  never  oppres/ 
sive,  never  a  slave's  nightmare  or  an 
insolent  boast:  &  at  its  best  it  had  an 
inventiveness,  an  individuality,  that 
grander  styles  have  never  overpass- 
ed: its  best  too,  and  that  was  in  its 
very  heart,  was  given  as  freely  to  the 
yeoman's  house,  and  the  humble  vil- 
lage church,  as  to  the  lord's  palace  or 
the  mighty  cathedral:  never  coarse, 
thoughof  ten  rude  enough,  sweet,  na- 
tural &  unaffected,  an  art  of  peasants 
rather  than  of  m  erchan  t  prin  ces  or  court/ 
iers,  it  must  be  a  hard  heart,  X  think,  that 
does  not  love  it :  whether  aman  has  been  bom 
among  it  like  ourselves,  or  has  come  wonder/ 
68 


348.  Morrises  Chaucer  Type:  Kelmscott  Press 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  209 

the  old-fashioned  method  of  using  various  fonts  of  type  on 
a  title-page,  or  an  unnecessary  numl^er  of  sizes  of  type  in  a 
volume,  has  been  given  up — even  in  the  commonest  com- 
mercial work.  And,  too,  Morris's  reforms  have  extended  to 
illustrations,  which  are  at  present  almost  always  by  one 
hand,  and  not,  as  in  old-fashioned  illustrated  books,  by 
half  a  dozen  different  designers  and  drawn  without  any 
relation  to  the  type-page.  These  newer  and  better  fashions 
in  book-making  may  be  directly  traced  to  sounder  concep- 
tions of  what  a  book  ought  to  be;  and  Morris  —  as  with 
the  weapon  of  the  Viking  heroes  he  loved  so  well — ham- 
mered this  conception  into  the  consciousness  of  gentlemen 
who  will  even  use  Truth,  if  it  appears  to  be  an  "asset"!  For 
no  man  ever  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions  more  than 
Morris,  or  a  heartier  contempt  for  foolish  opponents.  When 
asked  to  hear  the  other  side,  he  replied  (like  Garrison  on  the 
slavery  question),  "There  is  n't  any ! "  This  very  intolerance 
made  Morris  a  tremendous  force  in  typography;  for,  in  spite 
of  certain  conscious  overstatements,  it  was  a  sincere  intol- 
erance, and  was  aimed  not  at  people,  but  at  their  shallow 
views  of  things.  In  the  last  year  of  his  life,  when  in  failing 
health,  he  attended  a  public  meeting,  and  returning  from 
it  with  a  friend,  showed  signs  of  weakness.  The  friend,  more 
amiable  than  discreet,  suggested  that  this  was  the  worst 
time  of  the  year.  "No,  it  ain't,"  said  Morris,  "it's  a  very 
fine  time  of  the  year  indeed.  I  'm  getting  old,  that 's  what  it 
is."  In  short,  Morris  hated  humbug,  though  he  sometimes 
mistook  for  humbug,  opinions  with  which  he  disagreed  — 
as  't  is  human  to  do.  He  was  a  great  printer  because  he  was 
a  great  man  who  printed  greatly,  as  he  did  much  else. 

V^hen  Morris  began  to  work  with  types  of  his  own  in  his 
own  way,  other  people  (most  of  whom  knew  rather  less 


210  PRINTING  TYPES 

about  it)  began  to  design  their  own  types  and  print  with 
them  too.  Charles  Ricketts  of  London,  who  was  already- 
interested  in  making  fine  books,  instituted  the  Vale  Press. 
Mr.  Ricketts'  books  were  actually  printed  at  the  Ballantyne 
Press,  but  the  types  were  designed  by  him  and  arranged 
under  his  direction,  and  some  very  charming  decorations 
for  the  Vale  Press  books  were  by  his  hand.  In  a  paper  issued 
in  1899,  called  A  Defence  of  the  Revival  of  Printing  (which 
no  one  had  seriously  attacked),  he  contrasted  the  work  of 
the  great  Venetian  printers  and  of  William  Morris,  with  his 
own.  Morris,  as  was  well  known,  hated  the  Renaissance,^ 
but  Mr.  Ricketts  called  it  "a  charmed  time  in  the  develop- 
ment of  man."  Admitting  himself  "utterly  won  over  and 
fascinated  by  the  sunny  pages  of  the  Venetian  printers,"  he 
defined  the  pages  of  a  fine  Kelmscott  book  as  "full  of  wine" 
and  those  of  an  Italian  book  as  "  full  of  light."  This  being 
Mr.  Ricketts'  point  of  view,  it  is  surprising  that  his  type 
appeared  so  much  like  Mr.  Morris's !  For  it  is  fair  to  sup- 
pose that  the  types  which  he  designed  looked  precisely  as 
he  meant  that  they  should.  Apparently  the  Vale  Press  in- 
tended to  deal  not  in  "wine"  but  in  "light,"  and  it  must  be 
terribly  uncomfortable  when  you  want  light  to  get  wine! 
But  in  spite  of  this  rather  affected  Defence,  the  Vale  books 
had  style  and  distinction — being  more  classical  in  feeling 

*  Mr.  Mackail  says,  in  his  life  of  Morris :  "  With  the  noble  Italian  art  of  the 
earlier  Renaissance  he  had  but  little  sympathy  :  for  that  of  the  later  Renais- 
sance and  the  academic  traditions  he  had  nothing  but  unmixed  detestation. 
Some  time  in  these  years  [c.  1873],  his  old  fellow -pupil,  Mr.  Bliss,  then 
engaged  on  researches  among  the  archi\'es  of  the  Vatican,  met  him  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford,  and  pressed  him  to  come  with  him  to  Rome. 
His  reply  was  too  characteristic  to  be  forgotten.  'Do  you  suppose,'  he  said, 
'  that  I  should  see  anything  in  Rome  that  I  can't  see  in  Whitechapel ? '  Even 
the  earlier  and,  to  his  mind,  the  far  more  interesting  and  beautiful  work  of 
the  twelfth  jmd  thirteenth  centuries  in  Italy  did  not  appeal  to  him  in  the 
same  way  as  the  contemporary  art  of  England  or  Northern  France. ' '  Mackail 
adds:  "He  much  preferred  Iceland  to  Italy." 


CAPUT  LXXXIII. 

^^f^In  pinacothccampcrvcni,  varlogcncrc  tabu- 
larum  mirabilem :  nam  ct  Zcuxidos  manus  vidi, 
nondum  vctustatis  injuria  victas;  ct  Protogcnis 
rudimcnta,  cum  ipsius  naturae  vcritatc  ccrtantia, 
non  sine  quodam  horrore  tractavi.  Jam  vero 
Apcllis,  quam  Graeci  monochromon  appellant, 
ctiam  adoravi.  Tanta  cnim  subtilitatc  extremi- 
tatcs  imaginum  crant  ad  similitudinem  praecisae, 
ut  crcdcrcs  ctiam  animorum  esse  picturam.  Hinc 
aquila  fcrcbat,  ccelo  sublimis,  deum.  Illinc  can-- 
didus  Hylas  repellebat  improbam  Naida.  Dam- 
nabat  Apollo  noxias  manus,  lyramque  rcsolutam 
modo  natoflofc  honorabat.  Inter  quos ctiam pic'- 
torum  amantium  vultus,  tanquam  in  solitudinc 
exciamavi :  Ergo  amor  ctiam  deos  tangit  ^  Jupiter 
in  ccclosuo  non  invenit  quod  eligeret,  ct,  peccca- 
turus  in  terris,  nemini  tamen  injuriam  fecit.  Hy*- 
1am  Nympha  praedata  impcrasset  amori  suo,  si 
venturum  ad  interdictum  Herculem  credidissct. 
Apollo  pueri  umbram  revocavit  in  florem,  ct  om^ 
nes  fabulae  quoque  habucrunt  sine  aemulo  com- 

Elcxus.  At  ego  in  societatem  reccpi  hospitem, 
ycurgo  crudeliorem.  Eccc  autem,  ego  dum 
cum  vcntis  litigo,  intravit  pinacothecam  senex 
canus,  cxcrcitati  vultus,  ct  qui  videretur  nescio 
quid  magnum  promitterc;  sed  cultu  non  proindc 
speciosus,  ut  facile  apparcret  cum  ex  hac  nota 
littcratorum  esse,  quos  odisse  divites  solcnt.  Is 
ergo,  ut  ad  latus  constitit  meum.  Ego,  inquit, 
xxxv 

349.  The  Vale  Fount:  Vale  Press 


^^Ejusmodi  fabulae  vibrabant,  quum  Trimalchio  intravit,  el, 
detcrsa  fronte,  ungucnto  manus  lavit,  spatioque  minimo  inter- 
posito:  Jgnoscite  mihi  (inquit),  amici,  multis  jam  diebus  venter 
mihi  non  respondit:  ncc  medici  seinveniunt;  profuit  mihi  tamen 
malicorium,  et  taeda  ex  aceto.  Spero  tamen  jam  ventrem  pudorem 
sibi  imponere;  alioquin  circa  stomachum  mihi  sonat,  putes 
taurum.  Itaque,  si  quis  vestrum  volucrit  suae  rei  causa  facere,  non 
est  quod  ilium  pudcatur.  Nemo  nostrum  solide  natus  est.  Ego 
nullum  puto  tam  magnum  tormentum  esse,  quam  continere.  Hoc 
solum  vetare  ne  Jovis  potest.  Rides,  Fortunata!  quae  soles  me 
nocte  desomnem  facere.  Nee  tamen  m  triclinio  ullum  vetui  facere 
quod  se  juvet:  ct  medici  vetant  continere;  vel,  si  quid  plus  venit, 
omnia  foras  parata  sunt :  aqua,  lasanum,  et  cetera  minutalia.  Cre- 
dite  mihi,  anathymiasis  si  in  cerebrum  it,  in  toto  corpore  fluctum 
facit.  Multos  scio  sic  periisse,  dum  nolunt  sibi  verum  dicere. 
Gratias  agimus  liberalitati  indulgentiacque  ejus,  ct  subinde  casti- 
gamus  crebris  poiiunculis  risum.  Nee  adhuc  sciebamus  nos  in 
medio  lautitiarum,  quod  aiunt,  clivo  laborare.  Nam  communda- 
tis  ad  symphoniam  mensis,  tres  albi  sues  in  triclinium  adducti 
sunt.capistris  et  tinlinnabulis  culti, quorum  unum  bimum  nomen- 
culator  esse  dicebat,  alterum  trimum,  tertium  vero  jam  senem. 
Ego  putabam,  petauristarios  intrasse,  et  porcos,  sicut  in  circulis 
mos  est,  portenta  aliqua  facturos.  Sed  Trimalchio,  exspeciatione 
discussa:  Quem,  inquit,  ex  eis  vultis  in  coenam  statim  fieri.'' 
Galium  enim  gallinaceum,  phasianum,  et  ejusmodi  naenias  rustici 
faciunt:  mei  coci  etiam  vitulos,  aeno  coctos,  solent  facere.  Conti- 
nuoque  cocum  vocari  jussit,  et,  non  exspectata  electione  nostra, 
maximum  natu  jussit  occidi;  et  clara  voce:  Ex  quota  decuna  csr' 
Quum  ille,  ex  quadragesima,  respondisset:  Emtitius,  an,  mquit, 
domi  natus  esr'  Neutrum,  inquit  cocus,  sed  testamento  Pansae 
tibi  relictus  sum.  Vide  ergo,  ait,  ut  diligenter  ponas;  si  non,  te 
jubebo  in  decuriam  villicorum  conjici.  Et  quidem  cocus,  polenliae 
admonitus,  in  culinam  obsonium  duxit. 
CAPUT  XLVIII. 

^^♦Trimalchio  autem  miti  ad  nos  vultu  respexit;  et,  Vinum,  in- 
quit,  si  non  placet,  muiabo:  vos  illud,  oportet,  bonum  faciatis. 
Deorum  beneficio  non  emo,  sed  nunc,  quidquid  ad  salivam  facit, 
in  suburbano  nascitur  mco,  quod  ego  adhuc  non  novi.  Dicitur 
confine  esse  Tarracinensibus  et  Tareminis.  Nunc  conjungere 
xxxvii 

350.  Tlie  Avon  Fount:  Vale  Press 


QuQRe  non  racimusr'  Turn  eqo,  Tories  exci- 
TQTUs,  plane  vehemenTen  excandui,  ex  «ed- 
didi  illi  voces  suas:  Aux  donmi,  aux  eqo  jam 
paxRi  dicam. 
CAPUT  LXXXVIII. 

>^>C«ecTus  his  seRmonibus,  consulene  pRuden- 
xioRes  ccepi  aGxaxes  xabulanum,  ex  quaedam 
anqumenxa  mihi  obscuna,  simulque  causam  de- 
sidiae  pRaesenxis  excuxene,  quum  pulcheRRimae 
aRxes  peniissenx,  inxeR  quas  picxuRO  ne  mini'- 
mum  quidem  sui  vesxiqium  Reliquissex.  Turn 
ille :  Pecuniae,  inquix, cupidixas  haecxRopica  in^ 
sxixuix.  >^>VeRuni,  ux  ad  plasxas  convcRxaR, 
Lysippum,  sxaxuae  unius  lineamenxis  inhacRen-- 
xem,  inopia  exsxinxix:  ex  MyRon,  qui  pacne 
hominum  animas  FeRORumque  acRe  compRe- 
hendix,  non  invenix  hcRedem.  Ax  nos,  vino 
scoRxisque  demcRsi,  ne  poROxas  quidem  oRxes 
audemus  coqnosccRe;  sed,  accusaxoRes  anxi- 
guixaxis,  vixia  xanxum  docemus  ex  discimus. 
Ubi  esx  dialecxicar'  ubi  asxRonomia  ^  ubi  sa- 
pienxiaeconsulxissimavia  ^  Quis,inquam,venix 
in  xemplum,  ex  voxum  recix,  si  ad  eloquenxiam 
peRvenissex  ^  quis,  si  philosophiae  Fonxem  ax- 
xiqissexr^  Ac  ne  bonam  quidem  valexudinem 
pexunx :  sed  sxaxim,  anxequam  limen  Capixolii 
Tanqanx,aliusdonumpRomixxix,sipRopinquum 
divixem  exxulcRix:  alius,  si  xhesauRum  errO'- 
dcRix :  alius,  si  adxRecenxies  HS.  salvuspcRvC" 
ncRix.  Ipse  senaxus,RecxiboniquepRaecepxoR, 
xxxix 

351.  The  King's  Fount:  Vale  Press 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  211 

than  the  Kelmscott  books,  and  less  so  than  those  of  the 
Doves  Press. 

The  Bibliography  (the  last  book  issued  by  the  Vale  Press, 
in  1904)  is  printed  in  Vale  type,  and  at  the  end  a  page  of 
Latin  text  is  shown  in  the  Vale  Fount  {Jig.  349);  another  in 
the  Avon  Fount — a  smaller  roman  type  more  successful,  to 
my  eye,  than  the  Vale  {Jig.  350);  and  a  third  in  the  King's 
Fount,  which  is  less  happy  through  the  introduction  in  its 
lower-case  of  some  capital  letter-forms  {Jig.  35 1).  The  first 
Vale  Press  book  was  Milton's  Early  Poems.,  issued  in  1896. 
The  Avon  seems  to  have  been  first  used  in  1902.  Unfor- 
tunately, most  of  the  wood-blocks  of  the  ornaments  were 
lost  in  a  fire  at  the  Ballantyne  Press;  and  the  punches,  ma- 
trices, and  type  were  destroyed  on  the  issue  of  the  last  of 
the  Vale  publications.  The  tendency  in  these  books  was  cer- 
tainly toward  Italian  models,  but  so  much  influenced  were 
Messrs.  Hacon  and  Ricketts  —  like  every  one  else  at  that 
moment — by  Morris's  work,  that  they  did  not  get  as  far 
from  it  as  they  either  thought  or  intended. 

Four  years  after  Morris's  death  in  1896,  T.  J.  Cobden- 
Sanderson,  with  Emery  Walker,  Morris's  learned  associ- 
ate in  the  work  of  the  Kelmscott  Press  and  a  man  who  (as 
every  one  but  himself  would  admit)  has  been  the  mov- 
ing spirit  in  most  of  the  good  and  scholarly  ventures  in 
modern  English  typography,  founded  the  Doves  Press.  It 
owes  its  odd  name  to  an  old  riverside  inn  at  Hammersmith 
on  the  Thames,  familiar  to  row  ing  men,  which  in  turn  gave 
its  name  to  a  cottage  which  Mr.  Cobden-Sanderson  (who 
had  already  set  up  a  bindery)  used  as  a  work-shop.  The 
Doves  Press  was  founded,  says  Mr.  Cobden-Sanderson,  in 
his  Catalogue  published  in  1908,  "to  attack  the  problem 
of  pure  Tvjiography,  as  presented  by  ordinary  books  in  the 
various  forms  of  prose,  verse,  and  dialogue,  and  keeping 


212  PRINTING  TYPES 

always  in  view  the  principle  .  .  .  that  'The  whole  duty  of 
Typography  is  to  communicate  to  the  imagination,  without 
loss  by  the  way,  the  thought  or  image  intended  to  be  con- 
veyed by  the  Author,'  to  attempt  its  solution  rather  by  the 
arrangement  of  the  whole  book,  as  a  whole,  with  due  regard 
to  its  parts  and  the  emphasis  of  its  divisions,  than  by  the 
splendour  of  ornament,  intermittent,  page  after  page."  For 
this  press,  a  single  roman  font  was  cut,  and  the  first  book 
produced  in  it  (in  1891)  was  the  Agricola  of  Tacitus.  This 
Doves  type  discarded  the  extreme  blackness  of  Morris's 
fonts,  and  was  more  Italian  in  character  than  any  which  had 
hitherto  appeared  in  England.  It  is  based  on  Jenson's  roman 
font,  "freed  from  the  accidental  irregularities  due  to  imper- 
fect cutting  and  casting," — perhaps  a  fault  rather  than  a 
virtue, — "and  the  serifs  altered  in  some  cases."  It  is  a  very 
beautiful  type,  although  its  regularity,  and  the  rigidity  of  the 
descender  in  the  y,^  make  it  thin  and  spiky  in  appearance, 
and  thus  a  little  difficult  to  read ;  nor  has  it  the  agreeable 
"opulence"  of  the  best  Italian  fonts  {Jig.  352).  The  Doves 
Press  books  have  been,  however,  among  the  very  best  of 
those  printed  under  the  influence  of  the  Morris  revival.  The 
Doves  Bible  (1903)  is  a  masterpiece  of  restrained  style;  and 
although  in  one  or  two  later  volumes  a  commonplace  italic 
is  introduced  into  the  fine  roman  text,  the  Doves  books  have 
delightful  consistency  and  simplicity.  All  ornament  is  es- 
chewed in  them,  but  fine,  free  initials  give  a  decorative  note 
to  the  pages  here  and  there.  Mr.  Walker  withdrew  from 
the  undertaking  in  1909.  Mr.  Cobden-Sanderson,  with  con- 
siderable elegiac  ceremony,  brought  its  work  to  a  close  a  few 
years  later.  He  died  in  1922. 

'a  test  of  the  excellence  of  any  type  is  this  —  that  whatever  the  combination 
of  letters,  no  individual  character  stands  out  fi'om  the  rest  — a  se\'ere  require- 
ment to  which  aU  permanently  successful  types  conform. 


between  the  seen  and  the  unseen,  the  finite  and  the 
infinite,  the  human  and  the  superhuman,  and  is  a 
monumentalwork  of  the  eighteenth  as  distinguished 
from  the  seventeenth  century,  the  century  of  the 
Bible  and  of  Milton.  Finally,  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, Sartor  Resartus,  the  Essays  of  Emerson,  and 
Unto  this  Last,  are  related  &  charadteristic  attempts 
to  turn  back  the  Everlasting  Nay  of  scepticism  into 
the  Everlasting  Yea  of  affirmation,  &  in  the  presence 
of  the  admittedly  inexplicable  &  sublime  mystery  of 
the  whole,  to  set  man  again  at  work  upon  the  creation 
of  the  fit,  the  seemly,  and  the  beautiful.  Browning's 
Men  &  Women,  now  in  the  press,  conceived  about 
the  same  time,  is  a  more  dired;  presentment  of  the 
same  positive  solution. 

([These  Books  printed,  as  a  first  essay,  the  whole 
field  of  literature  remains  open  to  selecft  from. To-day 
there  is  an  immense  reproduction  in  an  admirable 
cheap  form,  of  all  Books  which  in  any  language  have 
stood  the  test  of  time.  But  such  reproduction  is  not 
a  substitute  for  the  more  monumental  producftion  of 
the  same  works,  &  whether  by  The  Doves  Press  or 
some  other  press  or  presses,  such  monumental  pro- 
duction, expressive  of  man's  admiration,  is  a  legiti- 
mate ambition  and  a  public  duty.  Great  thoughts 
deserve  &  demand  a  great  setting,  whether  in  build- 
ing, sculpture,  ceremonial,  or  otherwise ;  &  the  great 
works  of  literature  have  again  and  again  to  be  set 
forth  in  forms  suitable  to  their  magnitude.  And  this 

? 

352.  Doves  Type:  Doves  Press 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  213 

A  private  venture  w  hich  has  produced  comparatively 
few  books,  but  among  them  some  of  the  greatest  beauty,  is 
the  Ashendene  Press,  estabHshed  in  1895,  and  directed  by 
C.  H.  St.  John  Hornby  of  London.  Its  first  books  employed 
the  Caslon  and  Fell  characters  —  up  to  1902.  Later,an  Ital- 
ian semi-gothic  character,  closely  resembling  the  Subiaco 
type  of  Sweynheym  and  Pannartz,  was  designed  for  this 
press  by  Mr.  Walker  and  Mr.  Cockerell  {fg.  353).  This 
type  uas  first  used  in  Dante's  Infcnw^  issued  in  1902.  The 
splendid  Dante  of  1909  —  the  works  entire,  with  illustra- 
tions by  C.  M.  Gere;  Le  Moiie  Darthur  (1913);  and  the 
beautiful  Boccaccio  (1913-20),  with  rubrication,  and  initials 
designed  by  Graily  Hewitt,  are  among  its  greatest  achieve- 
ments. The  Dante  ranks  with  the  Doves  Bible  and  the 
Kelmscott  Chaucer — described  as  the  "three  ideal  books 
of  modern  typography,"  from  the  three  ideal  presses  of  the 
Revival.^  In  many  books  the  initials  are  in  colour,  and  some- 
times in  gold. 

Lucien  Pissarro's  Eragny  Press  (like  the  Kelmscott  and 
the  Doves  Press,  placed  at  Hammersmith)  took  its  name 
from  Eragny,  the  Normandy  village  where  Mr.  Pissarro  was 
born,  and  where  he  studied  and  worked  with  his  father. 
His  earlier  books  were  printed  in  the  Vale  type  designed 
by  Ricketts.  The  Brook  type,  in  which  an  account  of  the 
Eragny  Press  was  printed  in  1903,  is  an  agreeable  roman 
letter  designed  b}'  Pissarro  on  the  lines  of  the  \^ale  type, 
with  a  pleasant  movement  and  admirable  legibility  {^fig. 
354).  The  superiority  of  its  appearance  to  that  of  the  Vale 
fonts  is  due  partly  to  the  paper  generally  used,  which  is  most 
delightful.  Wood-blocks  printed  in  colours  are  a  favourite 
feature  of  the  Pxagny  Press  books,  and  the  text  is  their  ac- 
companiment. The  designing,  wood-engraving,  and  print- 
*  See  Pcddie's  Cantor  Lectures  on  Printing.  London,  1915. 


214  PRINTING  TYPES 

ing  are  all  the  work  of  Pissarro  and  his  wife,  though  some- 
times the  illustrations  are  by  other  hands. 

The  Essex  House  Press,  although  its  first  issues  were 
brought  out  in  Caslon  types,  produced,  in  1903,  a  font  called 
the  Prayer  Book  type  —  ambitious,  but  not  entirely  suc- 
cessful. It  was  designed  by  C.  R.  Ashbee,  the  director  of  this 
press.  There  are  some  curiously  unfortunate  characters  in 
its  lower-case  letters  —  the  g  and  f,  e  and  n,  for  instance  — 
which  resemble  pen-work,  and  not  very  pleasant  pen-work 
at  that.  His  Endeavour  type,  which  in  1901  preceded  the 
Prayer  Book  font —  a  letter  smaller  in  size,  but  with  many 
of  the  same  eccentricities  —  is  obscure  and  dazzling.  And 
set  in  these  types,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Essex  House 
books  have  no  great  merit.  Its  work  in  Caslon  types  was 
much  the  best  —  and  was  (as  when  combined  with  Edmund 
New's  delightful  illustrations  in  Wren's  Parentalid)  harmo- 
nious and  simple.  As  for  the  Cambridge  type  of  the  Uni- 
versity Press,  Cambridge,  it  is  an  unattractive  letter,  which 
combines  many  of  the  defects  of  the  fonts  we  owe  to  the 
modern  revival.  It  is  difficult  to  see  why  it  was  ever  cut  at 
all. 

Herbert  P.  Home  designed  three  types  of  importance  — 
the  Montallegro,  the  Florence,  and  the  Riccardi.  These  may 
be  called  sister  types,  for  they  show  a  certain  progression 
of  idea,  and  all  attack  the  problem  of  what  a  fine  type  for 
commercial  printing  should  be — elegant,  yet  readable  from 
a  present  day  standpoint. 

The  Montallegro  type  came  first.  This  type  was  mod- 
elled, as  were  the  others,  on  an  early  Florentine  font,  and 
was  intended  to  be  a  good  "reading  type,"  which  should  have 
rather  more  flexibility  and  grace  than  the  fonts  based  on 
older  Italian  forms.  It  was  first  used  in  Condivi's  Life  of 
Michelagnolo  Buonarroti  by  the  Merrymount  Press,  Bos- 


ODI  profanum  vulgus  61  arcco ; 
Favcte  Unguis :  carmina  non  prius 
Audita  Musarum  saccrdos 
Virginibus  pucrisq^  canto. 
Rcgum  timcndorum  in  proprios  grcges, 
Rcgcs  in  ipsos  imperium  est  lovis, 
Clari  Gigantco  triumpbo, 
Cuncla  supercilio  movcnds. 
Est  ut  viro  vir  (atius  ordinct 
Arbusta  sulcis,  bic  gcncrosior 
Dcsccndat  in  Campum  pctitor, 
Moribus  bic  mcliorquc  fama 
Contcndat,  illi  turba  clicntium 
Sit  maior :  acqua  lege  Hecessitas 
Sortitur  insignis  &l  imos ; 

Omne  capax  movet  urna  nomen. 
Destriclrus  cnsis  cui  super  impia 
Ccrvice  pendet,  non  Siculae  dapes 
Dulcem  elaborabunt  saporem, 
Non  avium  citbaraeq3  cantus 

3+ 

353.  Type  used  by  the  As/iendene  Press 


A   BRIEF  ACCOUNT   OF  THE 
ORIGIN  OF  THE  ERAGNY  PRESS. 

MR.  PISSARRO  first  learned  to  draw  from 
his  father,  in  the  fields  far  from  any  art 
school.  One  day  M.  Lzpkre,  the  well/known 
engraver,  showed  him  how  his  tools  were  held, 
&  finding  him  mterested.gave  him  two  gravers 
and  a  scorper.  Thus  furnished  with  the  means 
he  made  a  start  and  taught  himself;  with  the  re/ 
suit  that  in  1886  F.  Q.  Dumas,  editor  of  the  «Re/ 
vue  IIIustr^e»,  commissioned  him  to  illustrate 
a  story,  «Mait'  Liziard»,  by  Octave  Mirbeau. 
Four  woodcuts  appeared,  but  the  subscribers  to 
the  Review  expressed  so  much  disapproval  of 
these  illustrations,  conceived  and  executed  in 
the  uncompromising  spirit  of  Charles  Keene's 
work,  which  Mr.  Pissarro  greatly  admired,  that 
his  collaboration  was  cut  short  there  and  then. 
He  learnt  later  that  this  epistolary  demonstra/ 
tion  against  his  work,  which  inundated  Mr. 
Dumas' office,  was  the  work  of  some  students 
in  the  atelier  of  a  well/known  painter.  Dis/ 
appointed,  and  having  heard  that  in  England 
there  was  a  group  of  young  artists  who  were 
ardently  engaged  in  the  revival  of  wood/en/ 
graving,  he  crossed  the  Channel  with  the  in/ 
tention  of  joining  them,  having  in  his  pocket 
an  introduction  from  F^Iix  Fen^on  to  John 
4  Qray 

354.  Brook  Type:  Eragny  Press 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  215 

ton,  in  1905,  and  since  in  the  volumes  of  The  Humanist^ 
Library  {Jig.  355  a).  This  type  was  cut  under  Mr.  Home's 
direction  by  E.  P.  Prince  of  London,  an  English  crafts- 
man of  great  ability  and  experience,  and  —  within  a  nar- 
row circle — of  great  reputation.  The  types  of  the  Kelmscott, 
Doves,  and  other  English  private  presses  w  ere  from  his 
hand,  as  well  as  the  Florence  and  Medici  fonts. 

The  Florence  type  of  1909  came  next.  It  is  somewhat 
smaller  in  face  and  simpler  in  form  than  the  Montallegro; 
and  is  perhaps  the  most  successful  of  the  three.  It  was  cut 
for  Messrs.  Chatto  &  Windus  of  London  {Jig.  355  b). 

The  last  was  the  Riccardi  type,  also  cut  in  1909,  based 
on  fonts  cut  by  Miscomini.  It  has  been  used  in  the  "Ric- 
cardi Press"  editions  published  by  the  Medici  Society  of 
London.  A  litde  monotonous  in  effect  and  gathering  too 
much  colour  in  printing  unless  carefully  managed,  it  is  so 
practical  that  it  loses  the  elegance  of  the  other  two  fonts 
{Jig.  355  c).  A  smaller  size  of  the  type  (ll-point)  has  been 
cut  for  the  same  series  of  volumes.^ 

Among  other  interesting  typographical  experiments  of 
the  later  nineteenth  century  was  a  Greek  type  designed 
by  Selwyn  Image.  This  was  cut  in  two  sizes,  both  used  in 
a  Greek  Testament  issued  in  1895  {Jig.  356).  It  was  based 
on  the  letter-forms  of  early  Greek  manuscripts,  modified 
as  little  as  might  be  by  concessions  to  the  familiar  cursive 
Greek  characters  of  Aldus,  which  have  so  unhappily  in- 
fluenced Greek  typography.  These  types  are  not  particu- 
larly successful.  Robert  Proctor's  very  fine  Greek  tvpe — 
the  "Otter" — used  in  the  Oresteia  of  Aeschylus,  printed 
in  1904,  was  another  important  essay  in  Greek  tvpe-forms 

'  There  are  other  modem  private  fonts  on  which  I  have  not  touched.  For  fac- 
similes of  some  of  them,  see  Steele's  Rexnval  of  Printing,  London,  1912, 
and  The  ^4rt  of  the  Book  (a  Special  Number  of  The  Studio) ,  London,  1914. 
Also  The  Saturday  Rez'ie^v,  London,  November,  1919. 


216  PRINTING  TYPES 

{Jig.  357).  It  was  based  on  the  noble  Greek  characters  em- 
ployed in  the  New  Testament  in  the  Complutensian  Poly- 
glot Bible,  printed  at  Alcala  in  1514.  For  this  type  Proctor 
designed  the  capital  letters — except  the  11.^  It  is  fully  de- 
scribed by  Proctor  in  a  note  at  the  end  of  the  volume ;  which 
was  produced  at  the  Chiswick  Press,  for  Emery  Walker, 
S.  C.  Cockerel!,  and  A.  W.  Pollard." 

Next  to  English  special  types,  similar  American  fonts  are 
perhaps  the  most  interesting.  The  fine  Montaigne  font 
designed  by  Bruce  Rogers  for  the  Riverside  Press,  Cam- 
bridge, was  cut  in  1901  for  a  monumental  edition  of  the 
Essays  of  Montaigne,  published  in  1903.  This,  Mr.  Rogers 
said,  "  was  an  attempt  to  meet  a  want  that  was  felt  for  a 
large  type-face  that  should  avoid,  on  the  one  hand,  the  ex- 
treme blackness  of  the  types  which  Morris's  work  had  made 
popular,  and,  on  the  other,  the  somewhat  thin  effect  of  the 

Proctor  says  that  witli  this  exception  the  original  font  had  no  capital  letters ; 
but  according  to  other  authorities  it  actually  had  nine.  See  J.  P.  R.  Lyell's 
Cardinal  Xiinenes,  I^ndon,  1917,  p.  47. 

'  It  would  be  an  injustice  to  think  that  all  the  best  energies  of  modem  Eng- 
lish printing  (which  for  books  I  think  at  present  the  "soundest"  in  the  world) 
were  exhausted  in  the  work  of  special  presses  or  the  use  of  specially  designed 
types.  All  along  there  has  been  a  steady  flow  of  admirably  printed  English 
books  of  a  more  normal  kind,  printed  from  old  style,  modem  face,  and  otlier 
fonts  commonly  obtainable.  In  these  t}pes  the  best  English  printers  have  con- 
sistently produced  a  certain  class  of  memoir  and  many  books  on  architecture, 
painting,  and  the  fine  arts,  which  are  delightful — agreeable  to  look  at,  to  han- 
dle, and  to  read.  The  Oxford  University  Press,  the  Chiswick  Press,  the  Ar- 
den  Press,  the  houses  of  Constable  and  of  Ballantyne  have  printed  many  such 
books,  and  there  are  other  less  famous  presses  which  almost,  and  sometimes 
quite,  equal  them.  Work  like  this  is  what  the  student  must  look  to  for  some 
of  the  best  and  most  characteristic  ELnglish  typography  of  to-day.  Though 
American  ephemeral  printing  has  generally  been  superior  to  English,  of  late 
some  English  presses  have  turned  out  such  work  most  successfully.  ITie  cir- 
culars, placards,  etc.,  of  the  Pelican,  Cloister,  and  Curwen  presses  are  most 
agreeable  in  feeling,  and  their  striking  effects  have  been  arrived  at  with  com- 
mendable simplicity  of  attack  and  economy  of  means. 


And  if  you  set  him  beneath  as  good  a  man  as  him 
self  at  the  table:  that  is  against  his  honour.  If  you 
doe  not  visite  him  at  home  at  his  house:  then  you 
knowe  not  your  dutie.Theismaner  of  fashions  and 
behaviours, bring  mento  such scorne and  disdaine 
of  their  doings:  that  there  is  no  man,  almost,  can 
abide  to  beholde  them  :  for  they  love  them  selves 
to  farre  beyonde  measure,  and  busie  them  selves 
so  much  in  that,  that  they  fmde  litle  leisure  to 

La  lungheza  di  decta  chiesa  insulata  e  braccia  du- 
centosexanta:  la  quale  difuori  e  tuctadi  uarii  marmi 
incrustata,  con  statue  di  marmo  et  porphiri  molto 
adornata  per  mano  di  nobili  sculptori;  maxima  di 
Donate  ui  e  il  gigante  primo,  dalla  porta  della  As- 
sumptione  marmorea  per  mano  di  lohanni  Banchi, 
sopra  la  Annuntiata  di  musiuo  per  manodi  Domenico 
Grillandaro.  Nellafacciatadinanzieunoeuangelista 
a  sedere  et  una  statua  di  uno  che  si  piegha,  et  in  sul 
cantone  uno  uecchio,  tucte  per  mano  di  Donate.  Ma 
a  dirti  la  uerita,  decta  facciata,  la  quale  Lorenzo  de' 

and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  no  printed 
book  between  the  closing  years  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  those  of  the  nineteenth  was  any  at- 
tempt made  to  obtain  them  all,  though  the  tra- 
ditions of  good  craftsmanship  ensured  that  some 
of  them  were  preserved  in  many  cases.  The 
fifteenth-century  book  was  avowedly  an  imita- 
tion of  a  fine  manuscript;  its  type  was  a  copy 
of  the  current  writing  hand,  the  arrangement  of 
its  page  was  that  of  a  manuscript,  its  spacing 

(c) 
355.  Herbert  Hornet's  Montallegro^  Florence^  and  Riccardi  Types 


1  EN  AE  TAIZ  HMEPAII  ciceiwaic  napariNCTai  'Icodirac 

2  6  BanncTHC  KHpuccooN  cn  th  epHJUop  thc  Moudaiac  X^rooM 

3  MeraNocTre,  HrriKCN  rap  h  BaciXeia  toon  oupaNcoN.  Outoc 
rdp  ecTiN  6  ^Heeic  dia  'Hcaiou  ToG  npo9HTOu  XeroNToc 

<t>«NH    BOCONTOC   is    TH    IpHUCO 

'EroiudcaTC  thn  696n  Kupiou, 
euedac  noieTrc  jbc  xpiBouc  auToO. 

4  AuToc  de  6  McoaNHC  cTxcn  to  cNdujua  qutoO  anb  rpixobN 
kqjulhXou  kqi  zconhn  depjuoTiNHN  nepi  thn  6c9un  qutoG, 

5  H  de  Tpo9H  HN  auToO  oKpidec  kqi  ueXi  arpioN.  Totc 
ezenopcucTo  npbc  quton  MepocoXujua  kqi  naca  h  'loudaia 

6  KQI  naca  h  nepixcopoc  toO  'lopdoNou,  koi  efianTizoNTO  cn 
Tu>    'lopdoNH    noTaucp    un'    qutoO    ezojuoXoroujucNoi    toc 

7  ouLxapTfac  auTcoN.  MdcoN  de  noXXouc  tu>n  OapicaiosN  kqi 
ZaddouKafcoN  epxoJucNouc  cni  to  fidnTicJua  cTncN  auToTc 
FcNNHJUOTa    exidNcoN,    TIC    unedeizcN    ujjiTn    9urcTN   anb 

8  THC  jueXXoucHC  oprAc  ;     noiHCOTC  oun  ■  KopnoN  azioN  thc 

9  JueraNoiac  *  koi  juh  dozHre  XereiN  cn  lauToTc  FlaTcpa 
exojucN  TbN  'ABpadu,  Xerco  rap  ujuTn  on  duNOTOi  b 
eebc  cK  tcon  XiecoN  toutcdn  ercTpai  tcknq   Ta>   'ABpaoju. 

356.  Sehvyn  Image's  Greek  Type 


w    I    tx  •^o    X 
o-  ^  ^"^  '5  ^o 

D    =^  ,£    a,  VD 

_  y%  .^   ^ 


^3   z 
o 

TJUL/     -- 


rt   -co 


3  'O   ^   2   g 


B 


ex  c: 
tu     O 

I- 

o 


o 


P  'D 


2    >  -0 


">  6  z  :c  '3 


L-^  Q^-?    to    Z 

^^<r  o  D  M  -to 


o   o 


e? 


I 


REVIVAL  OF  EARLY  FORMS  217 

ordinary  book-faces  when  used  in  the  larger  sizes.  It  was 
modelled  as  closely  as  possible  upon  photographs  of  a  page 
of  Jenson's'Eusebius,'  but  partly  by  reason  of  the  designing, 
and  partly  through  the  conventional  training  of  the  punch- 
cutter  (who  was  nevertheless  a  most  admirable  and  skilful 
workman),  the  desired  quality  was  only  partially  attained. 
The  upper-case  letters  were  fairly  successful  from  the  first, 
and  required  little  modification ;  but  the  majority  of  the  lower- 
case characters  were  recut  se\eral  times  —  and  were  allowed 
to  pass  when  the  expense  and  the  delay  became  prohibitive. 
This  type  is  on  the  16-point  body."  It  has  been  delightfully 
used  by  Mr.  Rogers  in  the  Montaigne  and  in  some  other 
beautiful  books  designed  by  him  {Jig.  358).  Since  that  time 
Mr.  Rogers  has  designed  another  and,  to  my  mind,  finer 
font  —  the  Centaur.  The  upper-case  letters  of  this  font  have 
been,  since  1914,  in  use  for  the  work  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art  in  New  York,  and  in  1916  the  complete 
font  in  14-point  size  was  shown  in  Maurice  de  Guerin's 
Centaw.  Mr.  Rogers  describes  the  letter  as  a  refinement  on 
his  Montaigne  type,  and  though — as  is  his  wont  —  he  sees 
ways  in  which  this  font  could  be  bettered,  it  appears  to  me 
one  of  the  best  roman  fonts  yet  designed  in  America  —  and, 
of  its  kind,  the  best  anywhere  {Jig.  359). 

The  type  known  as  Merrymount  was  designed  for  the 
Merrymount  Press  about  1895  by  Bertram  Grosvenor 
Goodhue,  the  architect,  who  designed  the  well-known  Chel- 
tenham fonts.  He,  too,  based  the  Merrymount  font  on  the 
Jenson  letter,  but  instead  of  having  the  courage  of  our  rather 
wavering  convictions  and  making  a  type  as  light  as  Jen- 
son's,  both  he  and  I  w^ere  seduced  by  Morris's  unduly  black 
types.  So  we  merely  modified  the  heaviness  of  the  Morris 
fonts,  although  adopting  an  early  form  of  roman  letter.  The 
result  is  that  the  type  is  too  black  unless  used  on  large  pages. 


218  PRINTING  TYPES 

as  in  The  Altar  J^ooA*  (1896)  and  an  edition  of  the  Agricola 
of  Tacitus  (1904),  both  in  folio  {jig.  360). 

The  Humanistic  type  was  designed  in  Italy,  and  was 
based  on  a  manuscript  Virgil  in  the  Laurentian  Library  at 
Florence.  It  was  cut  for  the  University  Press,  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts.  Extremely  ingenious  in  its  clever  render- 
ing of  a  written  letter,  it  is  not,  as  type,  easy  to  read,  and  the 
excessive  length  of  the  descenders  compels  a  somewhat 
leaded  composition.lt  is  an  interesting  letter-form  and  shows 
research,  but  it  was  not  a  wholly  fortunate  experiment,  be- 
cause more  calligraphic  in  effect  than  is  comfortable  to  the 
eye.  It  just  lacks  the  charm  of  fine  writing,  and  yet  is  too 
like  it  to  make  a  fine  type ;  and  so  falls  between  two  stools. 

What  value  have  these  specially  designed  and  privately 
cut  fonts  of  type?  And  the  answer  is:  In  themselves,  very 
little.  They  are  only  in  the  nature  of  interesting  experi- 
ments ;  and  there  is  scarcely  one  of  them  that  is  absolutely 
practical.  If  they  have  failed,  the  causes  are  not  far  to 
seek.  One  minor  reason  is  that  most  of  them  were  not  cut 
by  the  man  who  designed  them,  and  the  type-cutter  cannot 
put  into  them  as  he  works  the  touches  which  the  designer 
would  instinctively  give,  if  he  were  a  type-cutter  too.  An- 
other reason  is,  that  when  a  book  becomes  decorative  at 
the  expense  of  its  readability,  it  ceases  to  be  a  book  and  be- 
comes a  decoration,  and  has  then  no  raisoTi  cPetre  as  a  book. 
Again :  being  unaccustomed  nowadays  to  the  purer  letter- 
forms  to  which  these  types  usually  approximate,  fonts  of  the 
kinds  we  have  been  considering  are  for  continuous  read- 
ing almost  always  consciously  trying  to  the  eye.  Last  and 
chiefly,  such  types  do  not  readily  lend  themselves  to  the  lit- 
erary and  typographical  needs  of  to-day;  and  indeed  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  printing  that  must  to-day  be  done  and  done 


THE  BANQUET  OF  PLATO 

APOLLODORUS.  I  think  that  the 
subject  of  your  inquiries  is  still  fresh 
in  my  memory;  for  yesterday,  as  I 
chanced  to  be  returning  home  from 
Phaleros^oneofmyacquaintancejSee- 
ing  me  before  him,  called  out  to  me 
from  a  distance,  jokingly,  *  Apollodo- 
rus,  you  Phalerian,  will  you  not  wait 
a  minute?' — I  waited  for  him,  and  as 
soon  as  he  overtook  me,  *  I  have  just 
been  looking  for  you,  Apollodorus,'  he 
said,  'for  I  wish  to  hear  what  those 
discussions  were  on  Love,  which  took 
place  at  the  party,  when  Agathon,  Soc- 
rates, Alcibiades,  and  some  others  met 
at  supper.  Some  one  who  heard  it  from 
Phoenix,  the  son  of  Philip,  told  me  that 
you  could  give  a  full  account,  but  he 

could  relate  nothing  distinctly  him- 

I 

358.  Rnice  Rogers'  Montaigne  Type 


CTHE  CENTAUR.  WRITTEN  BY  MAURICE  DE 
GUERIN  AND  NOW  TRANSLATED  FROM  THE 
FRENCH  BY  GEORGE  B.  IVES. 

>^(^f^^^^^^®Was  born  m  a  cavern  of  these  mountains. 

Like  the  river  in  yonder  valley, whose  first 
drops  flow  from  some  cliff  that  weeps  in  a 
deep  grotto,  the  first  moments  of  my  life 
sped  amidst  the  shadows  of  a  secluded  re/ 
treat,  nor  vexed  its  silence.  As  our  mothers 
draw  near  their  term,  they  retire  to  the  cav/ 
erns,  and  in  the  innermost  recesses  of  the 
wildest  of  them  all,  where  the  darkness  is 
most  dense,  they  brmg  forth,  uncomplaining,  offspring  as  silent  as 
themselves.  Their  strength^giving  milk  enables  us  to  endure  with/ 
out  weakness  or  dubious  struggles  the  first  difficulties  of  life;  yet 


359.  Bnice  Rogers'  Centaur  Type 


o 


E  :i  ?^  6 

2  ^  W  o 


C   :i 


o 


.52   (u 


nJ 


V         C/J 

E  .S 

nj    E 

cro 

a  .fa 


o  .g    ^  .S2    5    C    <^    c 

irpEfcr352<i^ 


S  §  a  s  I 


8  §  a  S  §  h  ^  a, 
•p   n   5   <^  *i       j:^  tt 


a.2 

eg    o 

c  S  ^ 
s   ^   ft 

o 


E 
o 


E  8 


00 

E 


E  ^ 

O    o 


4^    g  .2    c^  .S  _3   to   1;} 
c/5    i-H  'rs  'i-t  »-rt  '"^    »-*   '^ 


-^  E  ^  '^ 


c  E  o 

■      ft      Oh 


o 


t  6 


V3       X       ^ 

;=J    Oh  d    "    o    (u 

^     CO     00     CJ     C    'S    T= 


«t  •; 


c/l 

S  s  S  -^ 

g  Q  .^  -g  -^ 
S^  to  c  o  -■ 


pq 


5  u 
c 
o 


•^    00    nJ 


n 

Oh    g 

E 
o 


fi  'fl^  o  S  E  o  o 


Q 


c 

DC 

6 


♦J^     00 


;  S  t5  ^  -  §  g_^  a 

cug  E  £  crcxg  g, 
^•S  §  J  ^-  .^  I  :S 

43C(uSooon3a^^ 


F^' 


^ 
-^ 


;:) 


6 

CO 


THE  CONTINENTAL  REVIVAL  219 

well,  to  which  these  fonts  are  not  suited  at  all.  The  conven- 
tion which  is  properly  required  in  their  employ  restricts  their 
use.  For  in  "artistic"  types,  as  in  so  much  else,  art  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  is  thought  out,  not  felt — conscious  rather  than 
instinctive.  So-called  aesthetic  printing,  —  be  it  English, 
American,  or  German,  —  taken  en  bloc,  is,  in  the  long  run, 
a  bit  tiresome.  It  is  so  much  in  earnest  that  it  charms  too 
wisely  rather  than  too  well,  and  fails  in  the  purpose  for 
which  all  types  and  books  exist. 

These  fonts  have  not,  I  think,  directly  accomplished  all 
that  the  designers  in  their  enthusiasm  expected.  But  they 
are  indirectly  of  value  in  making  us  think  about  earlier  and 
purer  type-forms.  Students  of  typography  must  be  familiar 
with  them;  and  it  is  only  the  student  who  can  place  them  in 
their  proper  perspective,  and,  because  he  does  so,  appraise 
them  at  their  relative  and  therefore  true  value.  And  if  type- 
founders who  produce  new  fonts  will  continue  to  study  (as 
they  are  at  last  beginning  to  do)  the  originals  which  usu- 
ally inspired  these  modern  essays,  they  will  recognize  how 
much  men  have  to  hark  back  for  good  models  to  the  older 
types,  after  all.  So  in  spite  of  some  faults  and  impractical 
qualities,  such  essays  stimulate  the  eye  and  remind  print- 
ers of  standards  set  by  the  past.  It  is  from  this  point  of 
view  that  they  are  one  of  the  important  contributions  of 
late  years  to  the  appreciation  and  practice  of  good  book- 
making. 

II 

OUTSIDE  of  England,  Germany  was  most  influenced 
by  the  English  revival  of  twenty  years  ago;  more 
"popularly"  influenced  than  England  itself.  Up  to  the  time 
of  the  War  there  Mas  a  sort  of  renaissance  in  German  type- 
founding  and  printing.  The  German  books  of  the  early  nine- 


220  PRINTING  TYPES 

teenth  century  were  not  well  printed, — neither  type  nor 
paper  was  good,  —  but  they  were  simple  in  their  poverty, 
"poor  but  honest."  From  1850  to  1880,  the  ordinary  Ger- 
man book  was  very  bad  indeed,  because  it  was  at  once  so 
cheap  and  so  pretentious.  But  a  new  "secession"  movement 
began  about  1890,  not  only  in  painting  but  in  other  fields 
pertaining  to  the  arts.  As  far  as  printing  was  concerned,  the 
first  important  note  of  this  revival  was  struck  by  George's 
Blatter  fiir  die  Kiinst;  followed  in  1894  by  the  appearance  of 
the  secessionist  periodical  Pan^  which  introduced  Morris's 
books  to  the  German  public,  and  the  typographical  style  of 
which  greatly  influenced  contemporary  German  printers. 
This  was  followed  in  1899  by  the  Insel,  a  similar  review, 
from  which  grew  the  Insel-Verlag,  Leipsic,  whose  entire 
product  took  on  a  fine  and  thoughtful  typographical  form. 
Some  of  its  books  were  printed  in  modified  German  gothic 
types.  Books  printed  in  roman  type  show  the  influence  of 
English  models.  Its  ventures  were  effectively  supported  by 
the  public.  Private  presses  were  also  set  up,  and  some  fine 
special  types  were  cut  for  them.  Great  attention  was  paid 
to  good  calligraphic  lettering,^  for  which  instructors  were 
brought  over  from  England  by  the  German  Government. 
The  volumes  brought  out  by  the  Hyperion- Verlag  and  Cen- 
tury Press  of  Munich  (Hans  von  Weber),  by  the  Tempel- 
Verlag,  the  Insel-Verlag,  and  the  Janus  Press  at  Leipsic, 
the  "  special  editions"  of  Ernst  Rowohlt  {Drugidin-Dnicke) 
of  Leipsic,  the  books  of  Diederichs  of  Jena,  and  of  Georg 
Miiller  of  Munich  show  the  best  book-making  of  this  mod- 
ern German  revival. 

As  to  types,  besides  the  best  current  German  and  roman 

'  For  Austrian  work  in  calligraphy  see  Rudolph  von  Larisch's  Unterricht  in 
Ornamentaler  Schrift.  K.  K.  Hof-  unci  Staats  druckerei,  Vienna,  1913 — an 
important  and  interesting  study.  In  this  connection  a  i*oman  type  designed  by 
CO.  Czeschka  —  the  Czeschka  Antiqua  —  should  be  looked  at. 


THE  CONTINENTAL  REVIVAL  221 

types  obtainable,  fonts  in  both  were  specially  designed  and 
cut  for  the  work  of  these  houses  —  notably  the  modified 
gothic  character  designed  by  E.  R.  Weiss.  This  Weiss- 
Fraktur  was  highly  considered  in  Germany,  and  was  an 
attempt  to  sohe  the  problem  of  a  "book  face"  of  German 
script  which  should  be  agreeable  and  readable.  The  types 
designed  by  Behrens,  Koch,  Tiemann,  Wieynk,  Kleukens, 
Konig,  Hcilzl,  and  Ehmcke,  are  characteristic  of  the  merits 
and  defects  of  this  school  of  type-design. 

Of  the  results  of  all  this  effort,  it  is  less  easy  to  speak. 
While  the  cheapo  popular  books  were  admirable,  the  more 
ambitious  German  volumes  were  mannered  and  intentional. 
Like  most  modern  German  work  in  other  forms  of  artistic 
endeavour,  they  produce  a  certain  sensation,  but  not  that 
of  pleasure ;  they  astonish  rather  than  charm.  To  one  who 
possessed  a  modern  "secession"  house,  with  a  classic-hy- 
gienic-penal looking  library,  I  suppose  such  books  would 
be  the  only  kind  to  have.^  For  these  determined  \  olumes,  as 
we  view  them  in  perspective,  seem  to  have  run  true  to  form 
and  to  have  been  characteristic  of  the  life  about  them — but 
alas,  that  is  another  story! 

For  us,  German  book-making  closed  memorably  with  the 
beautiful  exhibition  held  at  Leipsic  in  the  summer  of  1914. 

No  doubt  a  certain  northern  quality  in  Morris's  work 
commended  itself  more  to  Teutonic  than  to  Latin  taste.  So 
in  Italy  the  "revival"  showed  itself  chiefly  in  a  return  to 
old  forms  of  roman  letter.  A  type  closely  modelled  on  Mor- 
ris's Golden  type  was  used  by  the  Fratelli  Treves  of  Milan 
in  an  edition  of  D'Annunzio's  Francesca  da  Rimini  issued  in 
1902.  Since  that  time  there  have  been  many  similar  books, 

'  For  illustrative  material  I  refer  the  reader  to  the  T^mes  Printing  .Yumher, 
London,  1912  (Fine  /Minting-  in  Germany,  pp.  58  el  se(j.),  and  T/ie  .Irt  of 
the  Book,  Special  Number  of  The  Studio,  1914  {The  Art  of  the  Book  in 
Germany,  by  L.  Deubner,  witli  specimens  of  types  described). 


222  PRINTING  TYPES 

but  the  tendency  has  been  toward  lighter  types  and  free 
and  sometimes  startling  unconventionality  in  decoration. 
The  Milanese  magazine  J?i.svrgi??iefito  G?'qfico  employs  a 
roman  type  of  free  design  based  on  a  font  of  Ratdolt's.  It 
was  brought  out  in  1911  by  the  Societa  Augusta  of  Turin. 
While  agreeable  to  the  eye,  there  is  too  much  space  between 
individual  letters  to  make  it  wholly  successful  {Jig.  36l). 

In  Holland,  there  is  evidence  of  the  spread  of  the  move- 
ment toward  earlier  letter-forms  in  the  Distel  type  designed 
for  J.  F.  van  Royen's  Zilverdistel  Press  at  The  Hague,  by 
Lucien  Pissarro.  This  is  intended  to  imitate  old  Nether- 
lands writing  {Jig.  362).  The  narrowing  of  paragraph- 
marks  is  a  clever  way  of  subduing  an  obstreperous  char- 
acter in  such  fonts.  The  Zilver  type  {Jig.  363),  on  the  order 
of  the  Doves  Press  font,  was  cut  for  the  Zilverdistel,  and 
the  historic  Enschede  types  have  been  employed  for  some 
of  its  work.  Interest  in  typography  is  also  evidenced  by  the 
existence  of  the  Typografische  Bibliotheek  at  Amsterdam. 
In  Belgium,  the  Musee  du  Livre  at  Brussels  is  a  somewhat 
similar  establishment.  The  latter  lately  issued  Sept  Etudes 
publiees  a  ^occasion  du  Quatrieme  Centenaire  de  Chnstophe 
P/aw^z//,  printed  from  old  types — more  curious  than  beau- 
tiful —  in  the  Musee  Plantin  at  Antwerp. 

Although  in  France  the  Morris  revival  never  had  much 
vogue,  it  is  interesting  to  recall  that  a  year  or  two  before 
the  founding  of  the  Kelmscott  Press  some  delightful  gothic 
types — a  clever  rendering  of  the  best  form  of  /ettre  batarde 
—  were  cut  by  E.  Mouchon  for  a  reproduction  of  Simon 
Vostre's  Heures  a  P  Usage  de  Rome  of  1498,  of  which  a 
page  is  reproduced  {Jg.  364).  The  book  was  printed  by 
O.  Jouaust  and  published  in  1890  by  L.  Gauthier,  who 
was,  by  the  way,  eleve  and  successor  to  Curmer  of  Paul 
et  Firginie  celebrity.  Save  for  this  and  a  few  similar  exam- 


c 
£ 

rs 

4-1 

;-■ 


as 


nj 


^  -^-Vi 


rrs 


<U 


rs 


o  ^ 


"V5      ^ 


^    w    o 


^  ^   ^  -i^ 


<u  -S 


c 

(L) 


C/3 


nj 


c  ^  u 

U-t    nj    nr-j  — ■ 

4-1 

c 


o     '^ 


o 

^  c    - 

^  (X)    (U  D      c 

>-*  ^     ^  OX}   n 

.  n3     £  c     > 

^  ?^  ^  ^  ^   .^  •- 

"»  (U    j:;  ^  ^ 

1?,  u 


£  - 

=5  c      ^ 

(J  *^  •■^ 

<L)  4->    ■  '^ 

3  (U      (U 

vj  cr  o 


<u 


n3 


C/5 


£  -^ 


o 

U 


c 


c 

rs 


nr 


5     r^ 


O     r^ 

C 
m 


J2    1^ 


^    ui 


<u 


O       V2 


00 


c 
o    - 

>  -^ 


c 

O      *^      ft» 

c 
o 

c 


£  ^ 


t> 


rrs 


rj      t-i    '3 


00    JiJ 


o 


W 
TJ 


o 

> 


rtf 


ro 


_       "^      v>      *-< 

eg" 


o 


■XJ 

o    o 


c 


n3 


n3 


c 


(U 


(U 


d) 


o 

O 


d) 


o    ^ 

£  ^  ^ 


C 

CO 


o 
tsi 

> 

jV     O   -^     C     3  d> 

p^     >   -^    --^   ncj  ,i;     00    _ 

a.  -"  2     n,     V. 

'TJ  C      00    C 

rs  .-^  o    o    o 

C/5         C«  U         P-l     O 


S       C      3 
Oh     3 

0-.   o 

£ 
c 

(U      00r;r    Jii 
^-    -^    -^ 

C 


OJ        c^        ,- 

fS 
^         «L)         t/3 

G 
n» 

c 
d> 

3 


ns      d) 

00  c 


d) 

> 
o 

G    .U 

IS      tJ 

u 

d) 
> 
d) 


d) 
■xf 


0-, 


CU 


G 
d) 

cr 
d) 


o 

o 

d) 

at 


<    ^    ^ 


G 
.O 

rtf 


d) 
G 

O 

G 
nj 

4-> 

G 
O 


o 

o     d) 

d>     ^ 
So      d) 

^^-^ 
d)        f« 


-^         d) 

'3 

■<->  nj 
Oh  Vh 
3 
O  *-J 
t«     *-> 

3    Ji 
ro 


d) 

u 


ro 

4-> 

VI 

d) 

3 

cr 

Vo 
G 
d> 


ro 

00 
;-( 
d> 
0-. 

ro 


^.     c     (U 


nj 
-CJ 

d) 
G 
G 
d) 
> 


G 
d) 


no    ^  --H 

1—1  V3 

<i^    2^  m 

o  <-> 

vi    d)  ^ 

ro      V3  _, 


d) 


^75  J^  ^ 

^^ 

VI    TJ 


ro 

d> 
d) 

Oh     d> 


ro 
d) 

4-1 

G 
O 

•XT 


oq 


(3 


^3 


^. 


-^ 
G 
K 


CO 


(f  Q3ie  fel  den  ho^ben  dans  verfraen 

Dar  ni^hen  dar  fwi^hen  dar  frille  fcaen 

Dar  fweuen  omme  ende  omme 

Dar  rreden  van  dar  fweuen  an 

Die  fnelle  ho^he  fpron^he 

(f  Die  minne  fraer  die  minne^aet 

Dieminnefin^herdieminnerprin^her 

Die  mtnne  rufc  in  der  mmnen 

Die  minneflaepz:  die  mmnewaecr 

(Die  mach  die  al  verfinnen 

(fDie  blenkende  cleder  fi  jn  al  ^hefpreic 

Die  duerbaervaerfijn  albereic 

Glc  nae  fijn  beboren 

Al  war  dar  in  den  boue  dienr 

Dar  beef c  die  m  inn  e  vercoren 

If  Died  uerbaervaer  van  bo^ben  fcbijn 

(Diredelen  cruden  mirpuren  wijn 

Si  bouden  edel  wife 

Si  ronen  baren  edelen  aerc 

Die  minne  die  wilfe  prifen 

IJ^UJac  vroecbde  macb  in  den  boue  flfjn 

Daer  alfo  milde  fcbenkers  fl  jn 

(^ic  bo^be  vroecbde  maken 

362.  Distel  Tijpe:  ZUverdistel  Ptrss^  The  Hag-ut\  1918 


DECEMBER  MCMXV.  I]"DE  ZILVERDISTEL 
BRENGT  TER  KENNISNEMING:  IfHET  IS 
ONSDOELNIET,DOORDITSCHRYVENTE 
WYZEN  OP  DE  WERKZA  AMHEID  VAN  DE 
ZILVERDISTEL.  In  een  uiteenzetting,  die  afzori/ 
derlijk  wordt  uitgegeven,  zai  men  alles  omtrent  haar 
grondbeginfelen,  haar  fcreven,  haar  programma  kun/ 
nen  lezen.  Dit  gefchnft  dient  flechts,  om  een  vastere 
werkwijze  te  verzekercn  voor  een  deel  onzer  voor/ 
nemens.  l]^De  ervaring  heefc  geleerd,  dat  ons  ftreven 
in  het  buitenland  alle  waardeering  vindc,  die  hec  mO/ 
gelijk  maakt  om  de  door  ons  overwogen  ferie  buiten/ 
landfche  boeken  uit  te  geven;  naafc  deze  wiUen  wij 
echter  die  van  Nederlandfche  litceratuur  niet  ter  zijde 
laten.  Veeleer  dringc  zij  zich  het  eerft  aan  onze  aan/ 
dacht  op.  Zij  is  het,  aan  wier  meesterwerken  wij  in  de 
eerfte  plaats  de  zorgen  van  DE  ZILVERDISTEL 
v^enfchen  te  befteden,  opdat  zij  de  boekkunftige  ver/ 
werkelijkingvinden,waartoewijnaaronsinzichthen 
als  gerechtigd,  ons  als  verplicht  erkennen.  De  erva^ 
ringheeftnochtans  mede  geleerd,  dat  voorhetuitvoe/ 
ren  van  onze  plannen  op  dit  gebied  een  andere  werk 
wijze  ware  te  volgen,  dan  voor  onze  boeken  voor  het 
buitenland  beftemd.  Kleiner  immers  is  ons  land,  ge/ 
ringer  het  aantal  van  hen,  die  tegelijkertijd  ^n  in  de 
Nederlandfche  letterkunde  ^n  in  de  vaderlandfche 
boekkunft  belangftellen;  en  al  weten  wij  door  onden 
vinding,  dat  een  voldoende  getal  perfonen,  die  de  be/ 

5 

363.  Zi/ver  Type:  ZUverdhtcl  Press,  'Die  Hag-iu\  1915 


'] :  %a^k  bc6  niaticrci^. 
■j^cfci?  nio6ifC'3  I  cafcnbiicr  pcrpctucf. 
pucrc^  bii  matin, 
pzicrc  ail  ^amt/iEfpztt. 
^oiifcctatiot)  ail  (acre  ^ociit:. 
pitcrcG  bii  foir. 

Pfamnc  IPc  p:ofimbi(?,  j  o^.-j^itjcfiuit). 
Oibinairc  be  fa  i^^cffc. 
^antique  b'actiont;  be  grdcet?. 
)r>ep:e6  bii  IDunajicfie. 
Conipftee;. 

)?cp:eL>  be  fa  fainte  JOiergc. 
£a  nafimtc  be  notre^^cigncur. 
£'iEpip6anie  be  notre^^S^eigncur. 
£c  IDimancfie  be  fa  i^efiirrection. 
£'afcenftot)  be  notre/^eigneur. 
j^a'fctc  be  fa  pcntecofe. 
;fra'jFcfc  bii  $aitU/^acrenienf. 
iT'affoniptiot)  be  fa  famte  ^Dierge. 
£a  "fttc  be  torn  fee  ^ainfc>. 
X)cpiec;  bci>  (^7o'^»?. 
Cf)cf[c  be  fenterrement. 
piierct;  poiir  fc  facremenf  be  penitence, 
purree  pour  fa  Communion. 
^afut(3  bii  $aint<^acrenient. 
^crcmonieci  j  nieffc  bu  clr^ariafje. 


■li- 


364.  ivr/ic/j  Left  re  Batarcte,  Paris,  1890 


THE  CONTINENTAL  REVIVAL  223 

pies  of  reproduction  of  old  types,  the  old-fashioned yo;7;«//iC 
for  fine  book-making  still  survive. 

Entirely  outside  any  influence  of  Mr.  Morris,  and  for  that 
reason  scarcely  within  the  limits  of  this  chapter,some  recent 
developments  in  French  type-founding  may  be  mentioned 
here.  Of  modern  French  foundries,  that  of  G.  Peignot  &. 
Fils,  Paris,  has  contributed  most  to  interesting  and  unus- 
ual typography.  Founded  by  Gustave  Peignot  (who  died 
in  1899),  in  the  hands  of  his  second  son,  Georges  Peignot, 
it  issued  several  series  of  type  w  hich  strike  a  new  note  in 
French  printing.  The  first — which  appeared  in  1897  — 
was  the  Grasset  type,  followed  in  1902  by  the  Auriol  type, 
designed  by  Georges  Auriol.  Both  of  these  had  considerable 
vogue  in  France,  but  were  too  distinctly  Gallic  in  flavour 
to  commend  themselves  to  the  public  of  other  countries. 
A  contribution  of  more  general  application  is  the  series 
called  Les  Cochms^  based  on  eighteenth  century  engraved 
and  typographic  material,  but  by  no  means  slavishly  fol- 
lowing it.  About  1914,  a  brochure  was  issued  describing 
and  showing  these  fonts,  entitled  Les  Cochins^  Caracteres  £s? 
Vignettes  renouveles  du  XFIII^  Siecle.  Of  the  type-designs, 
the  first,  Le  Cochin^  is  based  on  engraved  characters,  espe- 
cially in  its  delightful  italic  {Jig.  365),  and  may  be  used  for 
entire  books;  Le  Nicolas- Cochin^  much  less  good,  is  an  ex- 
aggerated form  of  letter  with  extremel}  tall  ascenders,  more 
obviously  based  on  engraving,  which  it  recalls  in  its  sharp- 
ness of  outline.  It  is  eflective  for  title-pages  or  ephemeral 
printing,  though  too  eccentric  to  have  lasting  value.  Both 
types  are  admirably  adapted  for  what  are  called  in  France 
travanx  de  ville.  They  have  been  used  with  charming  effect 
in  the  Gazette  du  Ihn  Ton,  in  Christmas  numbers  o{  L^ Illus- 
tration, and  in  similar  ephemeral  publications. To  them  were 


224  PRINTING  TYPES 

added  as  eqiii])ment  Le  Fourmer-le-jeune^  a  series  of  orna- 
mental italic  capitals  a  la  Fournier,  which  he  in  turn  had 
adapted  from  engraved  originals;  and  Le Moreau-le-jeune^ 
an  imitation  of  engraved  open  lettering  —  wrong  in  theory, 
but  so  well  done  as  to  be  charming.  The  Vignettes  Founner 
suj)plied  to  accompany  these  types  are  more  or  less  faithful 
renderings  of  ornaments  shown  in  Fournier's  Manuel.  The 
other  ornaments  by  Pierre  Roy  and  by  Marty  are  not  good. 

The  Giraldon  type  cast  by  De  Berny  is  an  essay  in  aes- 
thetic characters  which  is  scarcely  successful,  though  used 
by  Jules  Meynial,  who  has  employed  the  Cochin  types  with 
such  exquisite  results. 

But  to  my  mind,  the  healthiest  sign  in  modern  French 
printing  has  been  the  popularity  of  a  revived  use  of  Gara- 
mond's  and  Grandjean's  types  and  other  ancient  fonts  in 
editions  printed  by  the  Imprimerie  Nationale.  The  monu- 
mental Histoire  de  V Impiimene  euFrance  auXF^  et  au  XV F 
siecle,  by  Anatole  Claudin,^  begun  in  1900,  is  the  classical 

'  Monsieur  Claudin  had  his  Paris  book-shop  in  a  series  of  somewhat  forbidding 
rooms  on  the  rive  gauche,  not  far  from  the  Institut,  and  there  I  once  or  twice 
met  him.  Like  most  French  bibHophiles,  he  was  full  of  enthusiasm  for  his 
favourite  subject,  took  rare  books  most  seriously,  and  —  like  most  Frenchmen 
—  did  not  much  enjoy  travel.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  great  collector  of  fine  books, 
met  Claudin  in  Paris  many  years  ago,  and  Claudin  told  him  that  he  was  mak- 
ing some  investigations  about  the  Horse  of  Verard  and  others.  "Monsieur," 
said  my  friend,  "I  have  in  America  several  of  Vei-ard's  Books  of  Hours 
which  are  entirely  at  your  disposal."  Monsieur  Claudin  thanked  him  i)olitely, 
and  the  conversation  turned  to  other  things.  The  next  summer,  my  friend, 
being  agjiin  in  Fi-ance,  paid  another  visit  to  Claudin.  "  I  have  so  often  thought 
of  those  books  you  spoke  about,"  said  Claudin,  "and  wished  that  I  could  see 
two  or  three  of  them."  "Oh,"  was  the  reply,  "had  I  known  that,  I  could 
have  brought  them  over  with  me."  Monsieur  Claudin  looked  very  serious. 
"Sir,"  he  said,  "  is  it  not  enough  to  entrust  your  own  life  to  the  terrible  sea, 
without  also  offering  to  imperil  tlie  existence  of  les  vrais  chefs  d^oeuvre ?^* 
A  much  less  famous  bookseller  on  the  rive  droite,  to  whom  I  once  applied 
for  a  book,  shook  his  head,  saying  wearily,  "No,  I  liave  not  that  work.  It 
can  only  be  obtained  across  tlie  water."  After  some  questioning  I  discovered 
that  by  "the  water"  he  meant  the  Seine! 


=!**!:^:2p-i 


LES     COCHINS. 


LE   COCHIN 


2171  -  Corps  6. 


2115  -  Corps  7. 


Paris  dans  uoe  Toiture  publique. 
L'ua  ricoolc  qu'il  vicdI  pour  rpouur  U  Cllc  <lc  M...,  JIl  sc.  Iiiiuot, 
I'clJl  dc  luQ  p^rc,  cic.  lis  >ool  couclicr  4  U  m^me  aubcrgc.  U  Icade- 
mAln,  rcpouS4.'ur  mourt  a  scpl  bcures  du  raalio,  Avaat  d'avotr  fait  sa 
vistte.  L'aulre,  qui  cUit  un  pUisaot  d«  profcssiuo,  s'co  va  ckcz  Ic  b«au> 
prrc  futur,  sc  doDuc  puur  Ic  gcndrc,  le  conduit  co  bommc  d'cspril  c( 
cbdrroe  toule  la  famillo,  jusqu'au  momcDt  de  soa  depart,  qu'il  prccipi* 
t.iit,  disait-il,  parcc  qu'il  avail  rcadcz-vuus  a  six  bi'urcs  pour  sc  faire 
culcrrer.  C'^Uil  ca  cITcl  I'bourc  ou  Ic  jcunc  bommc  morl  Ic  malia 
devoit  elre  ealcrre.  L.«  domcstiquc  alia  a  I'aubcrge. 

ljJ^5678i)o 
ENTRAILLES    DE    PETIT- MAITRE    A     LA     MAINTENON 

21 16  -  Corps  8. 

Ccux  qui  rapportent  tout  a  I'oplnion, 
resseniblcnt  a  ces  comcdiens  qui  joucnt  inal 
pour  ctrc  applauJis,  quand  le  gout  du  public 
est  mauvais.  Quelqucs-uns  auraicnt  Ic  nio_)'cn 
de  bicn  jouer  si  Ic  gout  du  public  etait  bon. 
jJI...  duHi'U  de  yff.  lit:  la  Reymiri:,  cbez  qui  loul  le 
inonOe  va  pourcia  table,  el  ifu'cn  Iroiwe  ennuyeux : 
on  le  mangcj),  maij  on  ne  le  digere  paAj. 
123^567890  —  i2j^y6Sj()0 
COULEUR  CIIEVEUX  DE  LA  REINE 
JIASCAliyWE  CHEZ  LA  JIARQUISE 

2118  -  Corps  10. 

La  plupart  des  falseurs  de 
recueils  de  vers  ou  de  bons  mots 
ressemblcnt  a  ceux  qui  mangent 
des  cerises  ou  des  hmtres,  choi- 
sissant  d'abord  Ics  meilleures  et 
finissant  par  lout  manger. 

C'edt  un  pro%>crbc  lure  que  ce  beau 
moLj  :  «  0  malheur!  je  te  rcnd(Xj 
grac<L:>,  sl  tu  eeu  seull  » 

1234567890  —  i2j^y6jS()o 

GUEMENEE,    FONTENOY 
BERGERE  ET  JIENETRIER 


Le  mcJecin  Bouvard  avait  »ur  le  visage  une 
balafrc  en  forme  dc  C  qui  le  dcligurait  beaucoup. 
Diderot  disait  que  c'ctak  un  coup  qu'il  s'ctait  donnc 
en   tenant  m.iladroitcmcnt  la  faux  dc   la  morf. 

On  Jei)iani\iU  a  un  policLinelte  ce  i/u'il  y  ui-ait  Jjaj 
ia  boMt  De  dcvanU/.  De«j  ordrtAj,  DU-'d.  —   El  danj 
ta  boiM  De  DfmercJ  ?  —  Dej  conlre-orDrttij. 
1234567890    —   12J;f$6y8<)0 

VENTRE   DE  PUCE  EN  FifcVRE  DE  LAIT 

rAi^e  de  nyjUPiie  en  beaux  ATOURS 

2117  -  Corps  9. 

II  en  est  de  la  valeur  des  hommes 
comme  de  cclle  des  diamants  qui,  a  une 
ccrfainc  mcsure  de  grosseur,  de  purete, 
de  perfection,  ont  un  prix  fixe  ct  marque 
mais  qui,    par  dela,    rcstent  sans  prix. 

Un  n'roijiie,  biwant  un  verre  de  vliu, 
liu  dil  :  arrange-loi  biciu,  lu  MraA/foule. 

1254567890  —  J2jjf^6j8()o 
COULEUR   QUEUE   DE    SERIN 
B  ATT  ANT    D'CEIL  -  BOUILLOTTE 

2119  -  Corps  12. 

On  est  heureux  ou  mal- 
lieureux  par  une  foule  de 
choses  qui  ne  paraissent 
pas,  qu'on  ne  dit  point  et 
qu'on  ne  peut  dire. 

Et  foil  faudde  soil  ejpr'u^ 
comme  on  gate  soiu  Cdtomac. 

1234667890  —  i2j^j^6jS()o 

GENLIS,     FRONSAC 
LEVER  DE  LA  REINE 


i 


-^n^l^fT- 


?!fc 


365.  Le  Cochin:  G.  Pcignot  £sP  /H/.v,  Paris,  1914 


THE  CONTINENTAL  REVIVAL  225 

example  of  the  modern  use  of  such  types.  Tlie  prefatory 
matter  is  composed  in  Garamond's  characters,  and  the  text 
of  the  work  in  Grandjean's  ronumi  dii  roi,  from  fonts  newly 
cast  for  this  purpose.  It  is  probably  the  finest  book  on  print- 
ing that  has  ever  been  published. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES   FOR   A  COMPOSING-ROOM 

IN  suggesting  types  for  the  equipment  of  a  composing- 
room,  I  take  for  granted  that  the  owner  of  the  ideal 
printing-house'  of  which  it  is  to  form  a  part  is  a  man 
who  adopts  tlie  professional  rather  than  the  trade  view  of  his 
occupation.  This  means  that  the  workmanship  in  all  depart- 
ments of  his  establishment  will  be  of  the  best,  and  that  the 
types  will  be  chosen  with  an  educated  taste  and  from  a  schol- 
arly point  of  view.  The  product  of  such  a  printing-house 
cannot,  from  the  necessity  of  things,  be  termed  either  "com- 
mercial" or  "artistic,"  as  these  words  are  usually  employed; 
since  artistic  printing  is  merely  printing  so  exactly  and 
agreeably  suited  to  its  object  as  to  charm  us,  which  work 
called  commercial  may  certainly  do.  For  "charm  is  noth- 
ing but  the  kind  of  light  that  shines  out  from  the  fittingness 
of  things  which  are  well  put  together  and  well  devised  one 
with  another  and  all  together.  Without  this  measure  even 
the  good  is  not  beautiful;  and  beauty  is  not  pleasing."  Such 
a  press  as  that  of  which  I  speak  should  have  the  aims  which 
so  often  exist  in  the  mind  of  the  amateur  without  technical 
ability  to  execute  them,  combined  with  the  execution  of  the 
skilled  technician  who  may  not  possess  the  point  of  view  of 
the  lover  or  student  of  fine  printing.  Furthermore,  if  a  press 
is  to  do  the  work  of  to-day  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  the 
class  of  equipment  analogous  to  that  of  the  first  printers  — 
which  consisted  of  a  few  fonts  of  type,  generally  employed 
in  a  somewhat  rigid  and  inelastic  manner  —  will  not  serve 
its  purpose.  In  making  a  choice  of  types  for  a  composing- 

' ' '  Printing-house ' '  was  the  old  term  for  what  is  sometimes  erroneously  called 
a  print-shop  —  the  latter,  properly  speaking,  being  a  shop  where  engravings 
or  prints  are  for  sale. 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  227 

room,  while  some  types  of  early  form  may  be  desirable,  n  e 
shall  find  more  material  among  those  designed  by  Basker- 
,ville,  Caslon,  Didot,  Bodoni,  Wilson,  and  other  eighteenth 
century  founders,  and  their  derivatives;  to  w  Inch  must  be 
added  the  best  types  of  to-day. 

There  are  two  preliminary  statements  which  apply  to  the 
purchase  of  all  types.  First,  that  in  buying  a  series  of  t\pe, 
every  size  obtainable  should  be  procured,  so  that  the  range 
shall  be  as  great,  and  the  gradations  as  slight,  as  possible: 
good  typography  demanding  that  the  sizes  of  type  used 
must  be,  not  approximately,  but  precisely,  those  that  suit  the 
eye.  Second,  that  each  size  must  be  bought  in  sufficient 
quantity  to  meet  all  probable  needs;  for  a  few  complete  series 
in  large  fonts  are  far  more  valuable  than  thrice  the  amount 
broken  up  into  small  fonts  of  many  different  series.  If  a 
printer  knows  how  to  use  type,  the  variety  of  accent  he  can 
obtain  from  one  series  is  almost  unlimited.  For  instance, 
in  a  12-point  type  he  has  roman  capitals,  italic  capitals,  ro- 
man  capitals  in  combination  with  small  capitals,  small  capi- 
tals alone,  and  roman  and  italic  lower  case — six  variations 

CAMBRIDGE  CAMBRIDGE 

Cambridge  Cambridge 

Cambridge  Cambridge 

in  size,  colour,  or  effect,  which  should  be,  and  indeed  are, 
enough  for  the  requirements  of  an  entire  book.  Multiply 
these  six  variations  by  the  number  of  body-sizes  in  a  series 
of  type,  and  you  have  an  enormous  keyboard  on  which  the 
typographer  may  play.  If,  with  this  great  repertoire  to  choose 
from,  a  printer  is  obliged  to  resort  to  fanciful  display  letters 
or  heavy-faced  type  for  accent,  it  proves  that  he  lacks  un- 
derstanding of  the  use  of  normal  types. 


228  PRINTING  TYPES 

In  discussing  the  selection  of  types  and  decorative  mate- 
rial I  have  made  the  following  classification : 

1.  Types  that  seem  indisputably  standard,on  which  there, 
is  no  possibility  of  going  astray ;  or,  if  I  may  so  call  them, 
"types  of  obligation." 

2.  Types  which,  while  standard,  are  not  of  universal  util- 
ity, as  they  can  be  used  appropriately  only  for  books  of  a 
particular  character. 

3.  Types  that  are  based  upon  some  historic  fonts  or  show 
that  their  designer  was  a  student  of  early  type-forms;  and 
fonts  adapted  for  "publicity,"  though  not  usually  suitable  for 
the  printing  of  books. 

4.  Types  of  approved  utility  for  decorative  use. 

5.  Initial  letters  and  type  ornaments. 

|i 

In  the  class  of  types  which  appear  to  be  beyond  criticism 
from  the  point  of  view  of  beauty  and  utility,  the  original  Cas- 
lon  type  stands  first.  This  is  a  letter  identified  with  old  Eng- 
lish work,  and  as  we  follow  the  traditions  of  English  print- 
ing rather  than  those  of  Continental  countries,  Caslon's  types 
are  ours  by  inheritance.  Enough  has  been  said  about  their 
history  to  make  further  words  here  unnecessary.  Caslon  type 
should  be  had  from  the  Caslon  foundry;  for  the  versions 
offered  in  various  other  quarters  are  not  in  all  respects  as 
good.  Fonts  should  be  as  closely  fitted  as  possible — not  al- 
ways the  case,  even  in  types  put  out  by  the  Caslons  them- 
selves. No  Caslon  font — or  for  that  matter  any  other — is  de- 
sirable if  adapted  to  the  standard  lining  system  by  shortened 
descenders. 

The  variant  letters  which  are  supplied  with  Caslon  and 
with  many  other  types  in  the  nature  of  old  style,  are  charac- 
teristic and  useful — such  as  swash  italic  capitals,  the  italic 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  229 

lower-case  >  and  vp  used  to  begin  words,  and  the  ^  for  use 
at  the  ends  of  words.  These  swash  letters,  as  employed  by 
thoughtless  compositors  or  designers,  have  sometimes  pro- 
duced very  absurd  effects.  Only  certain  of  the  swash  italic 
capitals  can  be  successfully  placed  in  the  middle  of  a  word, 
the  design  of  the  rest  suggesting  their  position  either  as 
initial  or  final  letters.  Used  "discreetly,  advisedly,  soberly," 
swash  letters  give  variety  and  movement  to  pages  of  type. 
Furthermore,  both  in  roman  and  italic,  long  s  and  its  com- 
binations with  ascending  letters  are  interesting  letter- forms.' 
Some  tied  letters  lately  supplied  in  the  reproduction  of  an  his- 
torical font  are :  as,  />,  us,  &,  fr,  II,  fp,  ^,tt.\x.  is  to  be  wished  that 
terminal  a's,  e's,  m's,  and  n's,  with  tails  intended  to  fill  out 
lines,  were  available.  Apart  from  the  agreeable  appearance 
of  these  specially  old-fashioned  characters,  they  are  useful  in 
reprints  of  old  books.  And  so,  too,  are  superior  letters,  which 
are  desirable  for  reprints  of  old  work,  or  for  modern  books 
printed  in  antique  style.  In  old  style  fonts,  signs  to  indicate 
notes — star, dagger, double  dagger,  etc. —  are  more  interest- 
ing and  picturesque,  typographically,  than  superior  figures, 
which  I  prefer  not  to  use  with  an  old  style  type.  They  are 
particularly  appropriate  to  books  of  an  historical  or  genea- 
logical nature.  For  liturgical  books  the  common  liturgical 
signs  must  also  be  supplied,  and  of  these  peculiar  sorts  I  sug- 
gest—  at  the  risk  of  repetition  —  that  there  must  be  enough 
of  each  of  them  to  allow  work  to  go  on  unimpeded  by  an  in- 
adequate supply  of  a  kind  of  material  that  at  short  notice  it 
is  hard  to  get. 

Finally,  the  original  old  style  arabic  figures — nowadays 
called  "non-ranging"  —  should  be  used  with  all  old  style 

Tlie  abolition  of  the  long  s,  it  is  i)0])ularlv  thought,  we  owe  to  the  London 
publisher  John  Bell,  who  in  his  British  Theatre,  issued  about  1775,  discarded 
it.  Fi-anklin,  writing  in  1786,  says  tliat  "  the  Round  s  begins  to  be  the  Mode 
and  in  nice  printing  the  Long  f  is  rejected  entirely." 


230  PRINTING  TYPES 

fonts.  Such  figures  as  those  in  the  Dutch  types  given  by 
Dr.  John  Fell  to  the  Oxford  University  printing-house  are 
among  the  best  of  their  kind;  and  Caslon's  old  style  arabic 
numerals  are  lively  and  agreeable  type-forms.^  Of  these,  the 
numbers  1,  2,  and  0  cover  only  the  middle  of  the  body ;  6 
and  8  are  the  ascending,  and  3,  4,  5,  7,  and  9  the  descending 
figures  {Jig.  366).  "In  no  characters,"  said  Mr.  Morris,  "is 
the  contrast  between  the  ugly  and  vulgar  illegibility  of  the 
modern  type  and  the  elegance  and  legibility  of  the  ancient 
more  striking  than  in  the  arabic  numerals.  In  the  old  print 
each  figure  has  its  definite  individuality,  and  one  cannot  be 
mistaken  for  the  other ;  in  reading  the  modern  figures  the 
eyes  must  be  strained  before  the  reader  can  have  any  rea- 
sonable assurance  that  he  has  a  5,  an  8  or  a  3  before  him, 
unless  the  press-work  is  of  the  best." 

Second  in  the  first  class  of  types  stands  the  modern  face 
known  in  America  as  "Scotch."  In  this  type  the  letters  are 
more  regular  in  design  than  in  old  style  fonts.  Perhaps  the 
most  beautiful  form  of  it  ever  brought  out  was  that  cut  by 
William  Martin ;  and  a  very  close  copy  if  not  actually  the 
same  face  was  produced  in  Scotland  in  the  last  century — 
notably  in  the  "Series  of  Old  Founts"  by  Messrs.  Miller  & 
Richard  of  Edinburgh.  The  Wayside  Series  of  the  Ameri- 
can Type  Founders  Company — if  in  its  original  form,  with 
long  descenders — is  a  fairly  satisfactory  equivalent. 

Modern  face  types  appear,  at  first  sight,  clearer  to  the  eye 
and  more  easily  read  than  old  style,  but  they  are  really  less 
so  in  the  long  run.  Our  newspapers  are  printed  in  various 
poor  forms  of  "modern  face,"  which  is,  therefore,  familiar 

'The  old-fashioned  figures  were  employed  until  about  1785,  when  Hunter 
introduced  into  his  logarithmic  tables  the  new  form  called  "ranging."  In 
them  a  larger  size  was  needful  for  legibility.  About  1843,  both  the  Royal  As- 
tronomical Society  and  tlie  Superintendent  of  tlie  (English)  A''autical  Almanac 
decided  to  restore  the  non-ranging  figures. 


partes. 

Hti.    2   .     5  .    4  •    'S  '   6  .7. 

120 

0.    0.    0.    0.    0.0. 0 

60     0.    0  .     0.     0.0.    0.0 

II307    41.   32.  18  .  16.   0  .     0.0 

56'55  50.4^.  9.  13.  0  .  o.o( 

2826  55.  23.4  .36.30  .   0.0 

18S4 

3<?.  55.25.  4.20.  0.0 

1413 

27.  41. 32. 18.  15.  0.0 

5^ 

57.  41.25?  .14.  0  .  0.0 

41 

51.    55.    0.28  .   53  .  21  .0 

1558 

50.44.37  .    0  .    0.    0.0 

3^5 

46.  10.46.    4.20  .0.0 

1087 

41.  30.46'.  13.  55.    0.0 

1087 

41.   30.46.  15.   55.     0.0 

4676 

32.    13.  51  .    0.    0.    0.0 

3263 

4.  32.18  .  41.45.  0.  0 

1413 

27.    41.32.18  .15.    0.0 

2826 

55.     23.    4.35.30.    0.0 

Arabic  Figures  u.ied  by  Simon  de  Co/iries,  Paris,  1536 


Old  Style 

I 

234567890 

Transitional 

1 

234567890 

.1  Todern 

1 

2  345  6  7890 

366.  Arabic  Figures^  Non-Rang'ing  and  Rang-itig' 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  231 

to  the  public ;  so  that  old  style  types  seem  a  little  archaic 
to  most  persons.  Modern  face  type  is  admirable  for  books 
of  a  scientific  or  technical  character,  and,  as  it  is  likely  to  be 
used  for  such  work,  the  mathematical,  geometric,  algebraic, 
botanical,  astronomical,  and  other  special  signs  should  be 
fully  supplied  with  it.  Very  beautiful  books  have  been  made 
from  larger  sizes  of  this  type  —  such  as  the  pica  —  gener- 
ously leaded;  but  smaller  sizes  appear  monotonous  if  set 
solid,  and  if  leaded,  weak;  and  any  size,  if  unskilfully  used, 
may  become  very  commonplace  in  efiect.  To  make  a  distin- 
guished use  of  a  modern  face  is  more  difficult,  it  appears  to 
me,  than  with  old  style  type.  None  the  less,  it  is  excellendy 
adapted  for  certain  sorts  of  work  which  could  not  be  exe- 
cuted so  appropriately  in  an  old  style  letter. 

A  third  type  (which  originated  with  Binny  &:  Ronald- 
son  of  Philadelphia  over  a  hundred  years  ago)  is  in  design 
transitional  between  old  style  and  modern  face.  For  books 
where  the  old-fashioned  air  of  Caslon  would  be  too  obtru- 
sive, and  yet  which  call  for  a  letter  more  interesting  in  de- 
sign than  the  somewhat  bald  Scotch  face,  there  is  nothing 
better.  I  should  not  advise  the  purchase  of  this  transitional 
series  at  the  expense  of  the  first  two  types  chosen,  but  it 
will  frequendy  do  the  work  of  either.  Some  of  its  italic  has 
a  certain  naive  quality,  though  that  for  the  1 1 -point  (No.  l) 
—  superior  to  the  rest — was  the  work  of  an  accomplished 
tvpe-cutter.  This  type  is  not  obtainable  above  12-point  or 
below  9-point,  although  Binny  &.  Ronaldson's  specimen 
of  1812  shows  also  brevier  and  minion.^  It  is  called  "Ox- 
ford" by  the  American  Type  Founders  Company,  from 
whom  it  may  be  had.  I  have  used  it  for  this  book.  It  seems 
to  me  a  type  of  real  distinction. 

'  Tlie  nonpareil  and  pearl  do  not  appear  to  be  of  tlie  same  series. 


232  PRINTING  TYPES 

§2 
Types  of  our  second  class,  while  standard,  are  limited  in 
utility,  because  only  to  be  used  appropriately  for  certain 
kinds  of  printing. 

The  type  which  stands  first  in  value  in  this  category  is 
called  in  English  specimen-books  "revived  old  style  face," 
and  in  this  country  "modernized  old  style."  It  was  an  in- 
tentional attempt  on  the  part  of  English  letter-founders  to 
modify  the  rather  irregular  character  of  Caslon's  letter  de- 
sign without  copying  the  rigidity  of  the  modern  face.  It 
has,  in  certain  ways,  an  affinity  with  some  of  the  types 
which  were  put  out  by  Wilson,  in  which  he  modified  the 
Caslon  irregularities;  and  this  type  in  turn  is  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  more  spirited  designs  of  Wilson's  fonts.  It  is 
rather  a  broader  letter  than  Caslon's,  with  a  body  notably 
high  in  relation  to  its  ascenders.  This  type  is  useful  only  in 
its  best  form,  which  appears  to  be  that  cut  in  England  about 
1850.  If  this  best  form  is  well  composed  and  well  printed, 
fine  books  have  been  and  can  be  made  from  it;  but  it  re- 
quires care  in  setting  and  printing  because,  like  some  of 
its  precursors,  its  effect  may  be  spoiled  by  uneven  type- 
setting and  poor  presswork.  While  not  a  necessary  type  for 
an  office,  it  is  a  good  one.  It  has  the  advantage  of  giving  to 
the  repertoire  of  a  printing-house  a  certain  variety;  for  print- 
ers often  become  weary  of  using  the  same  kind  of  type,  even 
though  their  customers  may  appear  to  desire  no  change. 

Another  type  for  which  one  has  a  high  respect,  but  which 
can  only  be  used  for  even  more  special  occasions,  is  that 
commonly  called  "French  Old  Style"  or  "Elzevier."  The 
best  form  of  this  type  appears  to  be  that  brought  out  by 
Mayeur  of  Paris,  about  1878.  Although  styled  "Elzevier," 
it  has  a  greater  resemblance  to  the  types  poetiques  cut  by 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  233 

Luce  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Its  italic  is  more  useful  than 
its  roman,  because  it  has  an  interesting  series  of  swash 
capitals  and  some  unusual  tied  lower-case  letters.  Exten- 
sively copied,  I  do  not  think,  that  versions  produced  in  this 
country — of  which  the  best  is  called  "Cadmus  Old  Stvle" 
—  are  as  good  as  the  French  original.  I  should  therefore 
suggest  that  the  type  be  procured  from  French  foundries. 
If  used  with  a  nice  sense  of  taste,  such  a  type  is  suitable 
for  entire  books  and  is  excellent  for  ephemeral  printing. 

§3 

The  last  fifteen  years  have  witnessed,  in  architecture  and 
decoration,  an  increasingly  careful  study  of  the  art  of  his- 
torical periods,  and  this  has  had  an  effect  upon  book-mak- 
ing. At  first,  such  types  as  were  available  were  utilized  to 
reconstitute  books  in  the  styles  of  different  times  and  coun- 
tries. Naturally  enough,  this  soon  led  to  the  production  of 
types  inspired  by  certain  historical  type-forms,  the  earliest 
of  which  were  privately  owned  fonts  specially  designed  for  a 
given  purpose  or  a  particular  press.  Later,  similar  fonts  were 
put  on  sale  by  founders  for  whatever  use  a  printer  chose 
to  make  of  them;  the  success  of  their  use  depending  on 
the  printer's  skill.  In  the  first  of  these,  type-founders  "im- 
proved" what  they  said  they  set  out  to  copy,  with  the  in- 
evitable result  of  impairing  the  original  design;  but  several 
later  fonts  of  this  class  indicate  a  growing  appreciation  of 
the  necessity  of  a  stricter  adherence  to  the  originals. 

The  Cloister  Old  Style  roman  was  based  on  a  study  of 
Nicolas  Jenson's  long-suffering  and  as  yet  unrivalled  font, 
and  its  italic  is  of  an  interesting  early  form.  It  is  a  practical 
type ;  not  very  inspired,  perhaps,  yet  quiet  and  satisfac- 
tory because  not  attempting  too  much;  and,  just  because 
of  its  unobtrusive  quality,  lending  itself  better  to  a  good 


234  PRINTING  TYPES 

deal  of  work  than  the  more  distinguished  Garamond  series, 
based  on  the  Caracteres  de  VUniversite  cut  by  Claude  Gara- 
mond in  the  seventeenth  century.  In  the  latter,  the  italic 
is  better  than  the  roman;  for  in  its  roman  the  height  of 
capitals  as  compared  with  short  lower-case  letters  is  much 
greater  than  in  the  original,  and  they  are  also  more  con- 
densed. Less  free  than  the  type  which  Garamond  cut,  it  is 
yet  so  much  freer  than  most  modern  fonts  that  it  may  be 
recommended  as  a  picturesque  and  useful  letter. 

While  the  Cloister  or  the  Garamond  —  both  brought  out 
by  the  American  Type  Founders  Company  —  may  not  be 
absolutely  necessary  to  an  office,  a  type  of  this  historic  class 
should  be  selected  because  occasionally  useful  in  books  deal- 
ing with  artistic  subjects  where  slightly  archaic  types  are 
suitable;  or  for  announcements  and  other  ephemeral  printing 
which  permit  a  certain  latitude  of  treatment.  I  doubt  if  such 
fonts  make  comfortable  reading  editions  of  standard  w^orks. 

The  Kennerley  type,  cut  by  Frederic  Goudy,  whose  work 
has  had  a  distinct  influence  on  recent  American  type-forms, 
is  a  freely  designed  letter  which  has  been  much  praised  in 
many  quarters.^  Its  capitals  are  excellent,  but  the  lower-case 
roman,  except  perhaps  in  10-point,  seems  to  "roll"  a  little; 
and,  as  was  said  of  another  of  Mr.  Goudy's  types,  "when 
composed  in  a  body,  the  curves  of  the  letters  —  individually 
graceful — set  up  a  circular,  whirling  sensation  that  detracts 
somewhat  from  legibility.  That  is  to  say,  the  curves  are  per- 
haps too  round  and  soft,  and  lack  a  certain  snap  and  acid- 
ity." The  italic  lower-case — less  successful — is  a  letter  of 
approximately  uniform  line,  recalling  (to  its  disadvantage) 

'  This  and  other  fonts  produced  by  Mr.  Goudy  on  his  own  account  are  inter- 
estingly displayed  on  a  broadside  entitled,  A  S/iecimen  of  Tyfies  designed  and 
sold  by  Frederic  IF.  Goudy,  The  Village  Letter- Founder y,  Forest  Hill  Gar- 
dens, .A''evj  York. 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  235 

those  used  by  some  early  French  printers.  The  Kennerley 
appears  to  me  a  little  consciously  modelled  on  early  tyj)es  — 
more  "precious"  than  vahuil^le.  It  is  a  question  whether  it 
is  merely  an  ennobled  form  of  publicity  type  or  a  book  face 
the  value  of  which  has  yet  to  be  j)roved.  According  to 
Leonardo,  "Truth  was  the  daughter  of  Time."  So  it  will 
be  more  polite — and  safer — to  let  the  Lady  decide. 

Cheltenham  Old  Style,  designed  by  Mr.  Goodhue,  is 
among  those  types  that  Time  and  his  Daughter  have  defi- 
nitely devoted  to  publicity,  although  it  has  been  occasionally 
used  for  books.  Owing  to  certain  eccentricities  of  form,  it  can- 
not be  read  comfortably  for  any  length  of  time.  Its  capitals 
are  better  than  its  lower-case,  which  is  too  "perpendicular" 
in  effect — a  fault  appropriate  to  so  distinguished  an  archi- 
tect of  Gothic  buildings !  It  is,  however,  an  exceedingly 
handsome  letter  for  ephemeral  printing. 

A  second  type  that  seems  to  me  to  have  found  its  place 
in  the  same  class  is  Bodoni.  Some  people  might  call  it  an 
historical  font;  but  the  "Bodoni"  t3^pe  of  commerce  is  a 
composite  picture  of  many  of  Bodoni's  fonts,  rather  than  a 
reproduction  of  any  one  of  them.  None  the  less,  it  is  in  effect 
somewhat  foreign,  and  that  is  its  disadvantage;  for  a  vol- 
ume set  in  it  suggests  a  Continental  reprint  of  an  English 
book — an  impression  by  which  one  is  perpetually,  though 
perhaps  subconsciously,  teased.  It  can  be  utilized  for  short 
addresses, circulars, and  advertising,  with  great  success — as 
in  the  charming  use  of  it  by  Mr.  T.  M.  Cleland.  To  printer- 
designers  as  skilful  as  Cleland  it  may  be  recommended. 

§4 
Black-letter,  though  nowadays  rarely  used,  as  it  originally 
was,  for  the  text  of  entire  books,  has  survived  for  ornamental 
purposes;  especially  in  liturgical  printing.  This  type  is  un- 


236  PRINTING  TYPES 

readable  to  some  people  and  puzzling  (in  mass)  to  most,  so 
it  must  be  used  cautiously.  It  can  be  combined  most  suc- 
cessfully with  old  style  types.  With  more  "modern"  faces 
it  is  out  of  accord.  The  best  form  of  this  English  national 
letter  is  that  cut  by  William  Caslon  in  1734.  Most  of  the 
variants  of  Caslon's  black-letter  have  been  unsatisfactory 
because  too  thick  or  too  thin,  too  modelled  or  not  enough  so. 

The  gothic  paragraph-marks  that  sometimes  accompany 
black-letter  types  are  interesting  and  should  be  had;  as 
well  as  the  "peculiar  sorts"  of  these  fonts — the  round  r  (|), 
old  ampersand  ((t),  ligatured  letters,  liturgical  signs,  etc.  The 
so-called  black-letter  arable  figures,  the  dollar-mark,  and 
modern  ampersand  may  be  rejected.  Roman  forms  of  enu- 
meration—  by  letters  —  should  be  used  in  printing  numbers 
in  black-letter  type,  and  the  word  "dollars"  printed  in  full. 
In  many  gothic  fonts,  the  same  letter-form  is  still  used  — 
as  it  should  be — for  both  capital  I  and  J.  But  the  capital 
U — anciently  used  for  V  as  well  —  is  generally  supple- 
mented by  a  V  of  modern  design,  which  is  seldom  satis- 
factory. 

Other  black-letters  that  are  sometimes  useful  and  always 
interesting  are  the  Old  Flemish  Black,  based  on  one  of  Cax- 
ton's  types,  cut  by  Vincent  Figgins ;  and  a  round  gothic 
letter  called  Old  Tudor  Black,  cut  by  F.  Tarrant  and  E.  P. 
Prince  for  Messrs.  Miller  &:  Richard,  recalling  round  Italian 
gothic  types.  Beautiful  French  batarde  and  civilite  fonts  may 
be  secured  from  French  foundries. 

A  type  based  on  eighteenth  century  engraved  lettering, 
although  of  an  entirely  different  kind  from  black-letter,  may 
be  employed  in  a  similar  way  —  to  give  here  and  there  an 
ornamental  touch  to  pages  set  in  old  style  types.  Its  pecul- 
iarly French  character  limits  its  use,  which  must  be  spar- 
ing in  any  case.  It  is  called  in  this  country  French  Script, 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  237 

but  the  series  brought  out  by  Mayeur  of  Paris  is  styled  Les 
Batardes  Coulees. 

For  hues  set  in  capital  letters  on  covers  and  in  title-pages, 
the  Goudy  Old  Style  ronian  capitals  are  good. In  design  they 
have  an  agreeable  freedom,  and  they  compose  into  strong 
lines  of  dignified  letter.  Where  a  more  unconventional  letter- 
design  is  not  unsuitable,  Goudy's  Forum  capitals  are  to  be 
recommended. 

§5 
For  "free"  inidal  letters  —  to  cover  two,  three,  or  more  lines 
of  text — fonts  of  capitals  cast  without  shoulders  are  de- 
sirable. Complete  series  of  these  "tiding -letters"^  in  lx)th  old 
style  and  modern  face  should  be  procured.  With  transi- 
tional types,  old  style  initials  will  serve  satisfactorily. 

French  Old  Style  roman  capitals  make  a  distinguished 
initial  letter,  and  Goudy  Old  Style  roman  capitals  are  also 
effective  for  this  purpose.  For  use  with  black-letter,  a  few 
good  alphabets  of  free  gothic  capitals — notably  the  series 
called  "Missal"  —  are  available. These  plain  roman  or  gothic 
letters  are,  as  a  rule,  preferable  to  ornamented  initials. 

For  occasional  use  in  printing  of  a  more  fanciful  kind, 
the  four  sizes  o{  Moreaii-le-jeune  outline  roman  capitals  and 
the  three  sizes  of  Foimner-le-Jeurw  ornamented  italic  capi- 
tals brought  out  by  the  Peignot  foundry  of  Paris  are  very 
good  indeed. 

Of  decorative  alphabets  there  are  three  classes:  old  alpha- 
bets used  by  famous  printers  such  as  Tory,  Ratdolt,  Es- 
tienne,  Plantin,  and  others,  which  are  handsome  but  some- 
what hackneyed;  alphabets  of  a  much  later  style,  some  of 
them  versions  of  those  used  by  Whittingham  at  the  Chis- 

'  So  called  because  often  used  for  titles  requiring  several  lines  of  capitals 
where  the  shoulder  of  regular  capitiils  would  intixxluce  too  much  space  be- 
tween lines. 


238  PRINTING  TYPES 

wick  Press;  and  a  few  modern  series.  No  rule  can  be  laid 
down  in  selecting  such  alphabets,  because  it  depends  so 
much  on  personal  taste.  Nor  can  we  tell  where  to  find  them, 
for  they  must  be  gathered  from  many  different  foundries. 
Initials  of  large  size  are  comparatively  rarely  used ;  so  alpha- 
bets of  small-sized  letter  are  usually  the  most  practical,  and, 
it  may  be  added,  are  somewhat  harder  to  get.  Furthermore, 
if  one  can  secure  a  capable  designer  who  thoroughly  under- 
stands the  line  required  in  decorations  to  be  used  with  types, 
he  may  be  employed  to  draw  a  special  alphabet ;  for  this  is 
a  valuable  asset  to  a  printing-office.  Some  volumes  printed 
by  T.  &  A.  Constable  employ  an  alphabet  designed  by  Lau- 
rence Housman,  intended  to  accompany  a  modified  old  face 
type,  which  is  a  good  example  of  a  fine  specially  drawn  se- 
ries of  decorative  letters. 

In  some  of  the  best  old  and  modern  printing,  the  only  typo- 
graphical ornaments  used  are  solid  black  florets  or  "ivy 
leaves."  These  are  a  very  early  form  of  type  ornament,  and 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century  books,  in  which  they  con- 
stantly appear,  show  most  of  the  best  varieties.  Froben's  books 
are  full  of  such  ornaments.  Those  still  used  by  the  Oxford 
University  Press  were  part  of  Dr.  Fell's  gift.  Florets  give  life 
to  a  large  or  solid  page  of  type,  where  other  less  sedate  forms 
of  ornament  would  not  be  appropriate.  Most  of  them  accord 
best  with  sturdy  old  style  types.  Some  more  sharply  cut 
designs  of  later  date  harmonize  better  with  modern  face 
types.^ 

'  Maltese  crosses  —  still  employed  as  florets  in  country  printing-offices  and  by 
countrified  printers  in  towns  —  are  not  ornaments  at  all,  but  a  definite  litur- 
gical sign  indicating  ble'I<ssing.  Except  where  one  is  placed  at  the  head  of 
a  religious  inscription  as  a  symbol,  they  should  not  be  used  for  decollation. 
Oddly  enough,  they  are  most  frequently  employed  by  printers  for  non-litur- 
gical Protestant  bodies,  which,  if  they  knew  what  they  meant,  would  not  want 
them  ! 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  239 

As  early  types  became  lighter,  ornaments  became  more 
open  and  complicated  in  design,  and  in  combination  formed 
definite  patterns.  Examples  have  come  dow  n  to  us  from  the 
earliest  foundries,  and  are  seen  in  their  specimen-sheets — 
e.g.,  that  of  the  sale  of  the  Van  Dyck  types. 

Rowe  Mores  (in  his  Dissertation)  says,  "Metal-flowers 
were  the  first  ornaments  used  in  printed  books  to  be  set  at 
the  head  of  the  first  page  and  the  tail  of  the  last  page,  as 
well  as  the  head  and  tail  of  any  separate  part  of  the  w  hole 
work.  And  they  were  sometimes  used  as  an  edging  to  the 
matter  according  to  the  taste  of  the  author  or  the  printer. 
They  were  used  but  sparingly  and  with  small  variety,  but 
in  time  they  became  more  numerous,  and  were  cut  in  sev- 
eral shapes,  forms  and  devices,  and  continued  in  reputation 
till  Cutters  in  Wood  supplanted  them.  When  Mr.  Moxon 
wrote  they  were  accounted  old-fashioned.  But  the  use  of 
them  was  revived  by  the  French  and  Germans  and  the 
variety  of  them  considerably  encreased  by  the  Two  Mr. 
James's  in  England."  The  older  English  "flowers,"  he  con- 
tinues, often  "expressed  some  meaning  and  were  adapted  to 
other  purposes  than  barely  to  dress  and  decorate  a  page. 
They  were  formed  from  real  objects,  natural  and  artificial, 
civil  and  military  —  as  from  weeds  and  flowers  of  the  field 
and  garden,  leaves,  branches,  fruits,  flower-baskets,  flower- 
pots, urns,  crosses,  banners,  launces,  sw  ords,  and  tilting 
spears,  and  other  simples  culled  from  the  fields  of  nature 
and  of  heraldry;  yet  germane  to  the  subject  matter  of  the 
work.  They  were  frequently  emblematical  and  monitory;  as 
cherubs'  faces  for  the  hymns  of  charity  girls,  hour-glasses 
for  lugubrious  orators,  and  mort-heads  for  the  parish-clerks. 
They  were  symbolical  of  nations;  as  the  crown  and  rose, 
the  crown  and  lyz,  the  crown  and  harp; — of  dignities  and 
orders;  as  diadems,  crowns,  mitres  and  coronets;  the  red 


240  PRINTING  TYPES 

hat  called  at  Camb.  the  Cardinal's  cap,  where  too  the  mitre 
is  called  the  golden  night-cap;  the  courtelass;  the  arms  of 
Ulster,  and  the  anchor  of  hope;  the  Scotch  thistle  and  sprigs 
of  rue;  .  .  .  of  states  and  conditions;  as  the  myrtle,  the  weep- 
ing vvillovv^,  and  the  bugle-horn." 

Equivalents  of  many  of  the  "flowers"  described  by  Mores 
are  to  be  found  in  Caslon's  early  specimen-sheets,  which 
show  those  he  designed  for  use  with  his  own  types,  and 
which  are  carefully  adapted  to  harmonize  in  colour  with 
letter-press.  Solid  black  masses  are  usually  avoided,  and  in 
some  designs  cross-hatching  is  employed  to  give  variety  of 
effect  and  help  the  presswork.  Of  their  kind  there  is  nothing 
superior  to  Caslon's  "flowers,"  and  the  larger  assortment  of 
them  one  has,^  the  better. 

With  the  ebb  and  flow  of  colour  and  strength  in  types, 
the  weight  of  ornaments  changed.  As,  toward  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  type-faces  became  lighter, "flow^ers"  be- 
came more  delicate — or,  as  Mores,  writing  in  1778,  says, 
"mere  figures  of  fancy,  made  up  of  circular  oval  and  angu- 
lar turns,  contrived  to  look  light  airy  and  unmeaning,  and 
to  try  the  genius  or  patience  of  a  compositor."  With  mod- 
elled types  of  the  early  nineteenth  century,  ornaments  be- 
came still  thinner  and  more  wiry  in  eflfect.  During  the  reign 
of  fat-faced  types  the  ornaments  also  w^axed  fat.  In  short, 
there  was  a  distinct  difference  between  the  type  ornaments 
of  1750,  1790,  and  1820,  and  accordingly  they  cannot  be 
used  interchangeably.  The  French  ornaments,  flowers,  and 
borders  in  Fournier's  Manuel  of  1764  show  that  they  were 
designed  to  decorate  pages  set  in  types  of  that  time  and  in 

'About  twenty  years  ago,  these  old  oniaments  fell  on  evil  days,  a  few  of 
them  being  redrawn  for  several  American  foundries  in  "chap-book"  style, 
lliis  heavy  rendering  accorded  in  weight  with  the  massive  black  type  then  in 
fashion — a  style  withwhich  they  were  out  of  keeping.  The  original  forms  are 
the  only  ones  worth  considering. 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  241 

those  only.  Employed  with  the  types  of  Didot,  used  forty 
years  later,  they  look  coarse  and  inharmonious.  We  can  use 
these  "ivy  leaves"  or  "flowers"  properly,  only  by  remem- 
bering that  typographic  ornament  must  harmonize  in  line 
and  treatment  with  its  accompanying  letter-press. 

The  supply  of  good  florets  is  not  as  great  as  one  would 
expect.To  obtain  them,  specimen-books  of  different  foundries 
must  be  consulted,  and  those  selected  that  are  modelled  on 
the  best  old  ones.  Deficiencies  may  be  supplied  by  specially 
designed  florets,  copied  from  those  in  old  books. 

Before  making  a  choice  of  "  flowers,"  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
study  the  specimen-books  of  Caslon,  Fry,  Fournier,  Didot, 
and  Bodoni,  which  will  reveal  many  good  designs  and  give 
hints  for  employing  what  might  otherwise  seem  useless  ma- 
terial. Many  of  the  best  "flowers"  can  still  be  had  in  their 
original  forms,  and  fair  equivalents  of  others  can  be  picked 
up  here  and  there.  Good  ornaments,  which  have  been  laid 
aside  by  their  founders  as  old-fashioned,  can  sometimes  be 
cast  to  order. 

In  making  such  selections  as  this,  if  a  man  has  knowledge 
and  trained  taste,  it  will  show  itself  in  a  repertory  of  orna- 
ments distinguished,  individual,  and  peculiar  to  his  own 
office. 

II 

OUR  composing-room  has,  therefore,  only  about  seven 
series  of  standard  types  for  book  work,  and  in  all  about 
a  score  of  varieties:  "For  what,  then,"  the  reader  may  ask, 
"are  all  the  other  types  in  founders'  specimen-books?"  My 
answer  would  be,  "Chiefly  to  avoid."  We  are  told  that  if 
we  know  the  truth,  it  will  make  us  free ;  and  it  will.  If  we 
know  the  truth  typographically  we  shall  be  freed  from  using 
the  many  poor  types  that  are  ofl'ered  us.  There  are  hun- 


242  PRINTING  TYPES 

dreds  of  pages  in  founders'  specimen-books;  and  yet  ex- 
amples of  almost  every  type  that  the  world  ought  ever  to 
have  seen  could  be  shown  in  a  thin  pamphlet.^  If  we  know 
anything  about  the  history  of  type-forms,  or  have  learned 
to  distinguish  what  pure  type-forms  are,  most  of  the  types 
offered  appear  absolutely  negligible.  If  printers  had  been 
better  educated  in  their  own  trade,  many  of  these  wretched 
letters  could  never  have  been  sold  at  all.  Horace  Walpole — 
who  printed  none  too  well  at  Strawberry  Hill — said  about 
people,  that  nine-tenths  of  them  "were  created  to  make  you 
want  to  be  with  the  other  tenth."  This  is  true  of  types. 

The  types  I  have  recommended — all  of  which  may  be 
had  from  existing  foundries — are  mostly  standard,  and  all 
of  them  appear  to  me  good.  It  is  not,  however,  my  purpose  to 
choose  types  for  a  printer,  but  to  show  him  how  to  choose 
types  for  himself.  He  may  therefore  make  quite  a  different 
selection,  and  this  is  as  it  should  be.  If  only  the  types  sug- 
gested— no  matter  how  excellent — were  invariably  chosen, 
all  printing-houses  would  be  as  like  as  the  proverbial  two 
peas,  with  products  as  monotonous  as  Sahara.  This  can 
be  obviated  only  by  exercising  individual  taste — wisely; 
and  the  basis  on  which  individual  taste  can  be  wisely  exer- 
cised has  been  already  pointed  out.  It  is  applicable  both  to 
old  types  that  we  may  come  upon,  and  new  ones  that  may  be 
offered  us. 

There  is,  for  instance,  that  large  and  interesting  class  of 
types  transitional  between  old  style  fonts  and  modern  face 
characters,  shown  in  late  eighteenth  century  English  and 
French  specimen-books — types  like  Martin's  in  England 
or  Didot's  early  fonts  in  France.  Such  a  fine  transitional  let- 

*Out  of  146  types  classified  by  M.  Thibaudeau  in  La  Lettre  (T Imfirimerie, 
I  find  but  four  types  that  seem  "possible"  ;  and  De  Vinne's  Plain  Printing 
jy/ies  displays  only  a  very  few. 


DoMiNE  omnipotens,  Deus  patrum  nostrorum  Abra- 
ham, et  Isaac  et  Jacob,  et  seminis  eorum  justi,  qui 
fecisti  ca4um  et  terrain  cum  omni  ornatu  eorum ;  qui 
ligasti  mare  verbo  prijecepti  tui ;  qui  conclusisti  abys- 
sum,  et  signasti  eam  terribili  et  laudabili  nomine  tuo; 
quem  omnia  pavent  et  tremunt  a  vultu  virtutis  tuae, 
quia  importabilis  est  magnificentia  gloriae  tu2e,  et  in- 

sustentahilis  ira  comminationis  tiice  super  peccatores; 
immensa  vero  et  investigabilis  misericordia promissionis 
tuce:  quoniam  tu  es  Dominiis^  altissimiis^  benignus.  Ion- 
gaminisy  et  multum  misericors,  etpcenitens  super  mali- 
tias  hominum.  Tu  ,T>omine ^  secundum  multitudinem  bo- 
fi  it  a  tis  tu  ceprom  isis  ti  pa^  n  it  en  tia  met  remissionem  iis  ,qui 
peccaverunt  tibi^  et  multitudine  miserationum  tuarum 


DoMiNE  omnipotens,  Deus  patrum  nostrorum  Abraham,  et 
Isaac  et  Jacob,  et  seminis  eorum  justi,  qui  fecisti  coelum 
et  terram  cum  omni  ornatu  eorum;  qui  ligasti  mare  verbo 
prascepti  tui;  qui  conclusisti  abyssum,  et  signasti  eam  terri- 
bili et  laudabili  nomine  tuo;  quem  omnia  pavent  et  tre- 
munt a  vultu  virtutis  tuae,  quia  importabilis  est  magnifi- 
centia glorise  tuse,  et  insustentabilis  ira  comminationis  tuae 
super  peccatores;  immensa  vero  et  investigabilis  miseri- 

cordia  promissionis  tua:  quoniam  tu  es  Dominus,  altissimus^ 
benignus^  longaininis^  et  ?mdtum  misericors^  et  pcenitens  super 
malitias  hominum.  I'u,  Domine,  secundum  multitudinem  honita- 
tii  tuce  promisisti  fcenitentiam  et  remissionem  iis,  qui  peccave- 
runt tibi^et  multitudine  miserationum  tuarufn  decrevisti pceniten- 
tiam  peccatoribus  in  salutem.  '^u  igitur,  Domine  Deus  justorum, 
non  posuisti  pcenitentiam  justis,  Abraham,  et  Isaac  et  'Jacob, 

367.  Examples  of  Transitional  Types 


THE  CHOICE  OF  TYPES  243 

ter  will  do  all  the  work  of  an  old  style  type,  and  has  some- 
times, as  I  have  said,  a  distinction  and  delicacy  which  old 
style  fonts  do  not  possess;  while  it  is  more  interesting — 
less  bleak  and  commonplace — than  a  modern  face  type. 
The  two  upper  sections  in  our  plate  {Jig.  367)  are  set 
in  a  transitional  font,  which  is,  both  in  roman  and  italic,  a 
fine  and  workable  letter.  The  smaller  roman  beneath  has 
certain  interesting  peculiarities  that  render  it  unlike  Cas- 
lon's  ordinary  fonts — or  Baskerville's  either  —  but  its  ac- 
companying italic  came  from  the  Caslons  when  under  the 
Baskerville  influence,  and  is  for  all  intents  and  purposes 
a  characteristic  "Baskerville"  type.  A  man  must  be  thor- 
oughly grounded  in  his  knowledge  of  type-forms  to  select 
these  fonts;  for  an  untrained  eye  may  be  easily  deceived 
by  some  mongrel  type  which  is  not  transitional  at  all,  but 
merely  a  bad  type  for  any  period.  But  an  eye  trained  to  be 
sensitive  to  type-forms  will  be  able  to  "spot"  good  types 
amid  masses  of  worthless  material.  There  is  no  need  to  limit 
ourselves  to  American  or  English  products  in  searching  for 
such  types.  Continental  type  foundries  must  have  many 
agreeable  types  hidden  away  among  their  material,  which 
might  well  be  resuscitated. 

And  what  are  the  types  we  ought  not  to  want — which 
have  no  place  in  any  artistically  respectable  composing- 
room?  They  are  (in  my  opinion)  practically  all  types  on 
"standard  line,"  all  condensed  or  expanded  types,  all  "sans- 
serif"  or  (as  they  are  absurdly  miscalled)  "gothic"  types, 
all  fat-faced  black-letter  and  fat-faced  roman,  all  hair-line 
types,  almost  all  "ornamented"  types  and  types  which  imi- 
tate engraving,  and,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  all  shaded 
types.  To  this  list  I  would  add  the  variant  forms  of  many 
standard  series  of  types,  which  make  up  their  "families." 
These  are  principally  condensations,  distortions,  or  exag- 


244  PRINTING  TYPES 

gerations  of  the  original  letter  —  the  disreputable  offspring 
of  honest  parents. 

To  the  printer  the  moral  of  all  this  is  that  studies  in  type- 
forms  teach  us  not  only  how  to  choose,  but  give  us  courage 
to  eliminate.  There  are  many  ways  of  being  wrong,  but  only 
one  way  of  being  right,  and  it  is  surely  better  to  know  the 
one  way  of  being  right,  and  purchase  types  few  but  fit,  than 
to  follow  the  many  ways  of  being  wrong,  and  expend  much 
time,  labour,  and  money  in  the  experience !  I  have  called  this 
book  a  study  in  survivals,  because  in  it  I  have  tried  to  show 
not  only  what  types  have  survived,  but  what  should  survive 
through  their  fitness  for  the  best  typography,  and  in  so  do- 
ing to  lay  down  those  general  principles  which  may  help 
"the  survival  of  the  fittest"  in  days  to  come.  Each  year  that 
passes,  we  shall  be  called  on  to  judge  the  design  of  types, 
both  old  and  new.  We  must  have  a  trained  taste  and  eye  to 
make  a  rewarding  choice.  For  if  we  do  not  judge  types 
rightly,  they  will  judge  us  —  the  penalty  of  fooHsh  choice 
being  the  penalty  we  pay  for  choosing  foolishly  in  life.  We 
are  punished  by  getting  what  we  want ! 

It  is  a  simple  matter  to  make  lists  of  good  types — though 
not  as  simple  as  it  seems.  It  is  still  simpler — and  much  less 
trouble — lazily  to  accept  other  people's  conclusions  and  think 
no  more  about  it.  But  the  ideal  composing-room  will  never 
be  equipped  in  this  way.  It  will  be  made  what  it  ought  to 
be  only  by  those  adventurers  who  add  to  those  types  ac- 
cepted as  "standard "other  interesting  fonts  selected  from 
sources  to  which  study  will  have  furnished  a  clue.  The  field 
for  fruitful  research  is  still  great ;  and  the  printer  who  seeks 
will  find  himself  the  possessor,  not  merely  of  delightful, 
individual,  and  rare  types,  but  of  the  ideal  composing-room. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS  OF  THE  PAST  AND  THEIR 
RELATION  TO  THE  PRINTER'S  PROBLEM  TO-DAY 

y4  T  first  sight,  the  conditions  of  industry  in  the  past 
/%  do  not  seem  to  have  practical  relation  either  to  a 
A  ^  knowledge  of  printing  types  or  to  the  work  which 
a  printer  has  to  do  with  them.  This  same  objection,  however, 
might  be  made  to  the  historical  study  of  type-forms ;  yet 
the  deductions  made  from  such  a  study  have  a  practical 
bearing  on  the  selection  of  material  for  to-day's  work.  I  pro- 
pose to  show  that  a  knowledge  of  past  industrial  conditions 
is  of  like  value.  For  over  and  above  the  eternal  problem  of 
how  best  to  do  our  work,  some  ambitious  beginners  in  print- 
ing have  made  a  further  problem  of  their  own.  These  men, 
knowing  little  of  economic  and  industrial  history,  have 
come  to  believe  that  the  conditions  under  which  a  printer 
works  now  are  somehow  very  different  from  conditions  in 
the  past,  and  that  the  reason  men  cannot  do  to-day  what  the 
early  printers  so  splendidly  did,  is  because  to-day's  condi- 
tions are  so  entirely  different. 

It  is  natural  that  any  one  who  desires  to  become  some- 
thing more  than  a  commonplace  printer  should  be  beguiled 
by  the  romantic  aspect  of  his  art;  and  if  he  starts  out  with 
a  false  although  conventional  conception  of  "the  good  old 
times,"  it  is  only  because  he  has  derived  such  views  from 
pleasant  papers,  written  by  so-called  "craftsmen,"  concern- 
ing ancient  guilds,  the  former  unity  of  aim  among  work- 
men, the  stimulating  environment  which  surrounded  them, 
and  the  ease  with  which  masterpieces  were  thus  produced. 
The  statements  of  these  romantic  writers  have  little  rela- 
tion to  facts,  or  their  deductions  much  application  to  our 
problems  now.  Mr.  Ruskin  and  Mr.  Morris  were  long  ago 


246  PRINTING  TYPES 

responsible  for  some  of  the  harm  done  in  this  direction;  and 
the  disciples  of  the  ideals  of  the  one,  and  the  imitators  of  the 
work  of  the  other,  have  had  time  to  do  even  more  harm. 
There  have  been,  indeed,  many  well-meaning  persons  — 
some  are  still  with  us  —  who  have  written,  and  also  talked, 
in  a  manner  very  near  to  nonsense,  about  the  advantages  of 
working  long  ago — though  the  precise  years  of  these  agree- 
able periods  are  usually  left  dans  la  vague. 

Such  mistaken  views  have  not  been  confined  to  writing 
and  talking,  but  were  sometimes  acted  upon.  Theorists  and 
sentimentalists  here  and  there  formed  themselves  into  tem- 
porary industrial  groups,  fenced  away  from  what  they  called 
the  "corroding  influences"  of  the  period  to  which  they  really 
belonged !  These  men  thought  (or  said  they  did)  that  they 
were  reproducing  that  tranquil  and  contented  industrial  life 
under  which  —  in  some  Golden  Age — good  work  was  uni- 
versally done.  A  little  study  of  the  economic  history  of  print- 
ing, and  of  the  life  of  printers  in  old  times,  would  perhaps 
have  convinced  these  amiable  persons  that — as  far  as  typog- 
raphy was  concerned  —  no  such  conditions  existed.  The 
Gothic  scene  against  which  the  old  work  was  accomplished, 
made  in  some  ways  as  little  difference  to  it  as  does  the  shape 
of  a  room  to  the  sense  of  what  is  said  in  it.  What  we  think  of 
as  the  printers'  foreground  was  usually  their  background, 
and  the  remoteness  of  the  period  should  not  lead  us  to  ideal- 
ize it, or  them.  When  we  throw  away  all  x[-\\s'''' bric-a-brac  sen- 
timentale  et  moyen-ageux*''  we  find  that  the  constant  element 
was  the  human  will  struggling  against  human  laziness;  and 
that  the  victory  of  the  one  or  of  the  other  made  for  success 
or  failure  then,  precisely  as  it  does  now.  When  what  they 
did  was  admirable — as  it  sometimes,  but  not  always,  was — 
it  was  produced  with  travail.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  much  val- 
uable enthusiasm,  which  might  have  been  applied  to  present- 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      247 

day  needs,  has  come  to  nothing  through  these  false  concep- 
tions. "The  chains  of  the  mind  are  broken  by  understand- 
ing," says  Gilbert  Murray,  "and  so  far  as  men  are  unduly 
enslaved  by  the  past,  it  is  by  understanding  the  past  that 
they  may  hope  to  be  freed.  But  it  is  never  really  the  past  — 
the  true  past — that  enslaves  us;  it  is  always  the  present." 


II 

THE  history  of  French  type-founding,  printing,  and 
publishing  is  extremely  "documented,"  and  I  write 
of  early  industrial  conditions  in  France  because  we  can  so 
readily  get  an  idea  of  what  they  were  at  first  in  the  print- 
ing industry  and  of  what  they  subsequently  became.  To  be- 
gin with,  the  men  who  copied  manuscripts  before  printing 
was  introduced  were  often  extremely  inaccurate  transcrib- 
ers. To  establish  some  proper  standard  and  supervision, 
they  were  placed  under  the  control  of  the  University  of 
Paris.  The  University  had  the  right  to  license  proper  copy- 
ists, and  to  approve  the  sale  of  their  manuscripts  —  many 
of  which  were  in  the  nature  of  text-books  in  which  exact- 
ness was  essential.  To  accomplish  this,  there  was  a  great 
body  of  regulations  in  force.  The  copyists  in  France  were  an 
influential  class  —  strong  enough  to  prevent  the  setting  up 
of  a  printing-press  in  Paris  for  fully  twenty  years  after  the 
invention  of  printing.  Their  opposition  to  the  press  shows 
us  that  industrial  conflicts  existed  at  the  very  birth  of  print- 
ing. Mellottee  says  that  "documentsof  the  period  tell  us  of 
the  frightful  struggle  of  the  manuscript-makers  against  the 
first  printers.  No  improvements  in  our  present-day  machin- 
ery can  be  compared  to  the  change  which  printing  made 
in  the  production  of  books.  And  even  the  revolution  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  brought  about  by  the 


248  PRINTING  TYPES 

introduction  of  the  power-press,  is  as  nothing  really,  com- 
pared with  the  complete  overturn  which  took  place  in  in- 
dustries connected  with  the  book.  In  1470,  there  were  six 
thousand  men  occupied  solely  in  transcribing  manuscripts, 
and  some  years  later  they  scarcely  existed,  the  new  process 
doing  ten  times  more  work  than  all  of  them  together." ' 
Rome,  Venice,  Milan,  Nuremberg,  Cologne,  Augsburg,  all 
had  printing-presses  before  a  Parisian  press  was  set  up;  and 
when  the  first  Paris  press  was  established,  it  was  in  a  sense 
a  private  affair  and  came  into  being  only  through  the  influ- 
ence of  scholars  like  Heynlin  and  Fichet  of  the  Sorbonne. 
After  a  while  the  business  men  of  that  day  saw  the  com- 
mercial advantage  of  such  enterprises,  and  began  to  inter- 
est themselves  in  them.  It  was  not,  however,  until  about 
1480  that  printing  was  fairly  established  in  Paris.  Twenty 
years  later,  there  were  Parisian  establishments  which  pos- 
sessed as  many  as  fifteen  presses. 

If  we  keep  steadily  in  mind  that  the  making  of  printed 
books  was  nothing  more  than  the  reproduction  of  manu- 
scripts by  mechanical  means,  we  can  better  understand  by 
what  insensible  steps  the  supervision  of  the  University  was 
transferred  from  the  product  of  the  copyists-by-hand  (?>., 
manuscripts)  to  the  product  of  the  copyists-by-machine  (?>., 
books).  The  copyists-by-hand,  after  printing  was  introduced, 
had  still  some  work  to  do  on  a  printed  book.  In  many  cases 
they  illuminated  the  first  page,  just  as  they  had  decorated 
the  first  page  of  the  manuscript;  and  they  still  filled  in  par- 
agraph-marks, initials,  etc.,  in  colour.  There  was  no  abrupt 
transition  from  hand-copying  to  press-printing.  Many  men 
continued  in  the  waning  industry  of  calligraphy  and  illu- 
mination until  they  died;  but  their  places  were  not  filled. 

^  Histoire  Economique  de  V Imfirimerie .  U Imfirimerie  sous  rancien  Regime, 
1439-1789,  Paris,  Hachette,  1905,  pp.  2,  3. 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      249 

Others  were  at  once  forced  into  other  occupations,  and  many 
became  writing-masters,  some  accountants.  The  same  reg- 
ulations that  had  been  applied  to  the  scribe  and  his  manu- 
script were  applied  by  Louis  XI  in  1474  to  the  printer  and 
his  book;  the  transition  was  accomplished,  and  the  printer 
found  himself  attached  to  the  University  in  place  of  the 
ancient  copyist. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  examining  and  licensing  prerog- 
atives of  the  University,  vested  in  a  theological  facult}-,  were 
one  by  one  transferred  to  the  King,  and  in  the  end  it  was 
to  the  Crown  that  the  three  grades  of  French  printers — 
the  apprentice,  the  journeyman,  and  the  master-printer — 
had  to  look  for  such  privileges  as  they  enjoyed.  The  copy- 
ist having  become  a  printer,  and  supervision  having  been 
slowly  transferred  from  the  University  and  from  Parliament 
to  the  Crown — the  chief  result  of  sixteenth  century  legisla- 
tion— we  have  to  find  out  what  were  the  conditions  in  the 
printing  and  publishing  trade  in  France  during  this  and 
succeeding  centuries. 

In  the  early  days  of  French  printing,  there  were  three 
classes  of  printers :  the  apprentice,  the  journeyman,  and  the 
master-printer.  To  be  a  master-printer,  a  man  had  first  to 
be  a  journeyman,  and  before  being  a  journeyman  he  must 
have  been  an  apprentice.  Certain  conditions  had  to  be  ful- 
filled before  admission  was  granted  to  these  different  ranks. 
The  rules  which  governed  these  positions  descended  to  the 
printing  trade  from  the  ancient  Coi-poration  du  Livre;  and  to 
this  extent  guild  rules  had  some  influence  on  printing.  In 
the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  the  guild 
or  trade-union  was  really  a  safeguard  to  the  artisan,  we 
are  told  by  Mellottee.  The  head  of  the  atelier  \\as  in  some 
sense  a  father;  the  workman  lived  under  the  same  roof  with 
him;  in  disputes  he  had  a  right  of  appeal;  and  he  was 


250  PRINTING  TYPES 

backed  by  his  guild  or  company  as  the  cleric  was  by  his 
bishop,  or  the  student  by  his  college.  But  this  healthy  and 
true  form  of  paternalism  was  on  the  wane  when  printing 
Mas  invented,  and  by  the  sixteenth  century,  although  con- 
ditions appeared  to  be  much  as  in  former  years,  the  guilds 
and  similar  associations  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  employ- 
ers and  become  close  corporations  and  monopolies.  The  in- 
terests of  the  two  classes  became  more  distinct,  and  finally 
were  antagonistic.  Whatever  the  guilds  may  have  done  for 
manuscript-makers,  as  far  as  they  influenced  printing  at  all 
they  were  not  a  particularly  salutary  force.  For  printing  was 
a  trade  that  required  capital,  encouraged  subdivision  of  la- 
bour, and,  to  be  profitable,  had  to  employ  workers  in  large 
numbers. 

The  first  master-printers  engaged  their  apprentices  on 
various  terms :  sometimes  paying  in  money  only ;  some- 
times undertaking  to  feed  and  lodge  the  apprentice,  and  to 
supply  him  with  shoes  during  his  stay  —  and  at  the  end 
of  his  engagement  to  present  him  with  an  extra  pair!  The 
apprenticeship  generally  lasted  three  years.  In  1571,  ap- 
prenticeship became  compulsory,  and  a  master  was  obliged 
to  certify  that  an  apprentice  had  duly  learned  his  trade 
under  him,  and  was  fitted  to  become  a  journeyman.  The 
journeymen  complained  that  stingy,  ignorant  master-print- 
ers turned  out  half-educated  apprentices,  and  that  thus  the 
whole  class  of  journeymen  was  discredited;  and  as  a  remedy 
they  suggested  that  pressmen  should  serve  four  years'  and 
compositors  five  years'  apprenticeship — in  any  case  three. 
Later  it  was  insisted — what  from  the  first  would  have 
seemed  desirable — that  apprentices  should  know  how  to 
read  and  write !  In  1649,  the  lines  of  qualification  were  much 
more  tightly  drawn,  and  apprentices  were  expected  to  know 
something  of  Greek  and  to  be  able  to  read  Ladn.  The  result 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      251 

was  that  so  few  apprentices  applied  for  admission  to  print- 
ing-houses, that  in  1654  master-printers  were  again  allowed 
to  engage  apprentices  who  only  knew  how  to  read  and  write 
in  the  vernacular. 

There  was  also  an  inferior  sort  of  apprentice  called  an 
alloue.  Nothing  was  asked  of  him  except  hard  work.  He 
had  the  same  obligations  as  other  apprentices,  but  when  he 
had  finished  his  apprenticeship,  he  was  still  a  mere  work- 
man and  not  a  journeyman.  Journeymen  could  (if  fitted  for 
it)  become  master-printers;  but  the  alloiws  could  not.  They 
first  seem  to  have  been  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  little 
boys,  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  who,  because 
they  were  strong  and  willing,  were  useful  in  printing-offices 
and  could  be  profitably  employed.  Later  they  arrived  at  the 
status  we  have  described.  They  were  an  antique  form  of 
printer's  devil.  Child-labour  —  male  and  female — is  not 
new. 

In  those  days  of  ancient  peace  there  was  really  con- 
stant war  between  employer  and  employed  over  the  appren- 
tices—  a  struggle  that  began  with  the  invention  of  print- 
ing and  is  scarcely  terminated  yet.  The  master-printer,  to 
increase  the  number  of  journeymen,  wished  to  be  free  to 
take  as  many  apprendces  as  he  pleased.  The  journeyman, 
on  his  side,  wanted  to  reduce  the  number  of  apprentices 
so  that  the  number  of  journeymen  should  be  limited.  A  rule 
issued  in  1541  has  a  significant  clause  to  the  eflcct  that 
masters  may  make  and  take  as  many  apprentices  as  they 
choose,  and  that  the  journeymen  must  not  beat  or  menace 
the  said  apprentices,  but  must  work  with  them  for  the  good 
of  the  trade,  under  pain  of  prison,  banishment,  and  other 
punishments.  It  was  this  dispute  that  was  one  of  the  causes 
of  industrial  troubles  which  will  be  mentioned  later. 

The  earliest  French  printing-offices  were  often  very  small 


252  PRINTING  TYPES 

aftairs  —  ateliers  de  famille.  They  were  conducted  chiefly 
by  foreigners,  mostly  Germans,  whose  common  origin,  em- 
ployment in  a  foreign  country,  and  the  fact  that  books  were 
usually  in  Latin,  sometimes  led  to  real  community  of  inter- 
est and  some  intellectual  culture  among  the  workmen.  But 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  men  of  means,  principally  publish- 
ers A\ho  were  not  themselves  practical  printers,  organized 
printing-ofiices  simply  for  the  returns  they  got  from  them, 
just  as  we  now  organize  manufactories  and,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  printing-houses,  which  interest  us  only  for  the  money 
they  bring  in. Then,  as  now,  the  disparity  between  the  social 
and  financial  situation  of  the  two  classes  forced  men  into 
groups  governed  by  opposing  interests.  As  early  as  the  year 
1536,  a  master-printer  had  been  sentenced  for  the  bad 
food  given  to  a  journeyman,  and  the  decree  also  censured 
him  for  what  it  styled  "his  unbridled  avarice,"  which  made 
him  care  for  nothing  but  getting  rich,  though  he  was  re- 
ducing his  journeymen  and  their  families  to  objects  of 
charity.  When  establishments  came  into  existence  which 
employed  as  many  as  two  hundred  and  fifty  workmen,  the 
masters  tried  to  reduce  the  rate  of  w^ages.  To  effect  this,  the 
number  of  apprentices  was  made  as  great  as  possible,  for 
apprentices  were  paid  less. 

The  type-founders'  legal  situation  was  not,  "up  to  1686, 
very  clear.  They  w'ere  not  yet  recognized  as  exercising  any 
special  trade,  and  they  could  not,  as  type-founders  alone,  be- 
come members  of  the  Confrerie  de  St.  Jean  PEvangeliste^  (a 
sort  of  guild-trade-union),  or  from  1618  become  one  of  the 
Community  of  Printers  and  Publishers.  This  difl[iculty  they 
got  over  by  taking  out  permits,  which  allowed  them  to  open 

*  St.  John  the  Evangelist  is  the  traditional  patron  of  printers  and  publishers, 
"comme  celui  qui  fut  le  principal  et  le  plus  haut  desdits  secr6taires  6van- 
gelistes  de  Notre  Sauveur." 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      253 

shops  and  to  call  themselves  publishers,  or  sometimes  even 
paper-makers;  but  real  publishers  were  not  pleased  at  this, 
and  instituted  a  suit  in  1614  to  forbid  them  to  take  this 
title." ^  This  quarrel  lasted  for  a  long  time,  and  some  thirty 
years  later  Richelieu's  favourite,  Antoine  Vitre,  wrote  that 
"Letter-founders  call  themselves  publishers,  printers  and 
binders  because  they  cast  letters  for  books.  I  tell  them  that 
the  calf  has  about  as  much  right  to  call  himself  a  publisher 
because  he  furnishes  the  skin  for  the  bindings." 

A  decree  of  1670  regulated  the  sale  of  new  or  second- 
hand typographic  material,  which  was  scrupulously  looked 
after.  No  press  and  no  font  of  type  could  be  sold  or  ex- 
changed without  a  declaration  before  the  authorities,  if  it 
was  to  be  used  in  Paris ;  or  some  special  authorization,  if 
sent  into  the  provinces.  The  Crown  took  these  measures  to 
prevent  the  establishment  of  clandestine  printing-offices, 
from  which  disquieting  political  pamphlets  Avere  often  is- 
sued. Royal  authority,  enforced  to  the  utmost  through  the 
censure,  had  by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  reduced 
theUniv^ersity  to  a  negligible  role  in  relation  to  printing.  The 
regulation  of  the  printing  and  publishing  trade  I  shall  touch 
upon  later. 

Ill 

IT  may  come  as  a  surprise  to  the  lover  of  ancient  cus- 
toms that  among  the  picturesque  habits  of  sixteenth 
century  printers  was  that  of  going  out  on  strikes.  The  print- 
ers' strikes  and  resultant  disturbances  at  Lyons  and  Paris 
lasted  from  1539  to  1572.  The  Lyons  strike  was  an  explo- 
sion among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  work-people,  the  out- 
come of  a  series  of  abuses  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  mas- 
ters ;  for  master-printers  appear  to  have  determined  to  re- 

'  Mellott6e's  Histoire  Economique  de  t'Jm/irimerie,  pp.  401,  402. 


254  PRINTING  TYPES 

duce  their  subordinates  to  men  without  powers  or  rights. 
This  Lyons  strike  had  been  brewing  for  a  long  time.  In  the 
months  of  April  and  May,  1539,  a  number  of  the  Lyonnese 
printers  stopped  work,  and  also  disorganized  the  labour  of 
other  journeymen  and  apprentices,  threatening  them  if  they 
dared  to  continue  in  their  places.  The  sequel  was  a  strike 
so  general  that  the  printing  industry  was  at  a  standstill. 
Armed  bands  of  strikers  marched  the  streets  day  and  night 
and  attacked  masters,  police,  and  officers  of  the  govern- 
ment; but  among  the  workmen  themselves  excellent  disci- 
pline reigned,  showing  that  a  perfectly  good  understanding 
existed,  and  had  existed  for  some  time,  as  to  what  was  to  be 
done  by  the  labour  party.  The  outgoing  men  pledged  them- 
selves not  to  work  except  in  a  body,  and  punished  any  one 
refusing  to  submit  to  the  rules  of  their  organization.  The 
number  of  men  in  the  labour  group  was  so  great  that  it  was 
impossible  to  imprison  them  all,  though  here  and  there  some 
workmen  were  arrested. 

The  cause  of  the  strike,  according  to  the  workmen's  com- 
plaint, was  that  master-printers  supplied  insufficient  food, 
that  wages  had  been  reduced,  and  that  they  were  not  free 
to  do  their  work  as,  and  when,  they  chose.  The  masters  re- 
torted that  there  were  certain  classes  of  journeymen  who 
were  never  contented  with  their  food  and  never  would  be, 
and  that  there  were  always  men  who  wished  to  take  holi- 
days on  work-days  and  to  work  on  holidays.  But  the  num- 
ber of  holidays  without  pay  was  a  positive  evil  then  to  the 
working-man,  as  they  would  be  now,  for  he  often  needed 
to  work  at  those  times  to  support  his  family.  On  the  chief 
festivals,  naturally,  no  m  ork  was  done,  but  there  were  mul- 
titudes of  minor  saints'  days  to  be  observed,  leaving  only 
about  two  hundred  and  forty  working  days  in  the  year. 

The  masters  were  willing  to  compromise  on  these  points. 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      255 

but  the  workmen  would  not  accept  their  offers.  Meanwhile 
the  authorities  of  Lyons  insisted  upon  some  solution,  for  they 
had  the  strikers'  wives  and  children  on  their  hands,  many 
of  them  in  real  destitution.  To  settle  matters,  two  commit- 
tees (one  composed  of  journeymen,  the  other  of  masters) 
appeared  before  the  Seneschal  of  Lyons,  w  ho  had  authority 
from  the  Crown  to  settle  the  dispute.  The  seneschal's  de- 
cision shows  on  how  many  points  the  two  groups  differed. 
Journeymen  \\ere  forbidden  to  take  any  pledge  among  them- 
selves, to  gather  outside  work-rooms  in  larger  parties  than 
five,  to  carry  arms  or  sticks  in  printing-offices  or  the  street,  to 
threaten  or  beat  apprentices  or  to  interfere  with  them;  they 
were  also  debarred  from  labour  on  festivals  and  from  stop- 
ping work  on  the  eves  of  festivals  earlier  than  was  custom- 
ary, and  were  not  allowed  to  leave  work  to  go  to  a  baptism  or 
funeral  unless  it  was  in  the  family  of  their  master  or  mistress/ 
As  to  master-printers,  they  could  take  as  many  apprentices 
as  they  chose,  but  they  must  give  the  usual  monthly  wage 
to  journeymen  and  must  feed  them  properly,  with  as  good 
food  as  they  had  customarily  given  five  or  six  years  before 
—  a' committee  being  appointed  to  decide  wherein  proper 
board  and  lodging  consisted.  In  most  of  these  stipulations 
journeymen  were  defeated  and  masters  were  triumphant; 
but  the  Seneschal  of  Lyons,  in  receiving  a  group  of  jour- 
neymen representing  the  workmen,  inadvertently  recog- 
nized the  labour  party.  By  this  an  admission  was  practi- 
cally made  that  workmen  had  the  right  to  act  in  a  corpo- 
rate capacity  and  to  be  represented  before  the  authorities. 
The  Crown,  however,  accepted  the  settlement  of  the  dispute 
and  made  a  decree  which  was  mandatory,  and  the  strike 
was  ended.  The  government  found  itself  face  to  face  with 
organized  labour,  and  it  was  so  frightened  thereby  that  the 
decrees  which  it  put  forth  not  alone  regulated  printing, 


256  PRINTING  TYPES 

but  were  to  be  applied  in  principle  to  every  other  trade  in 
France. 

The  Lyons  strike  was  a  question  of  wages;  the  Paris 
strike  concerned  the  conduct  of  employees.  It  was  precipi- 
tated by  complaints  made  by  master-printers,  who  alleged 
that  journeymen  and  their  helpers,  by  private  clubs  and 
associations,  had  directly  and  indirectly  stirred  up  dissat- 
isfaction among  apprentices,  and  had  so  influenced  them 
as  practically  to  destroy  their  usefulness.  The  masters  drew 
up  regulations  which  they  wished  the  King  to  enforce, 
based  on  decisions  given  in  the  Lyons  strike,  and  meant  to 
forestall  similar  difficulties.  These  proposed  rules  debarred 
journeymen  from  forming  any  club  or  electing  representa- 
tives, from  assembling  outside  their  master's  house,  and 
from  being  armed;  forbade  them  to  beat  apprentices ;  made 
masters  arbiters  of  what  journeymen  should  do  and  how 
and  when  they  should  do  it ;  forbade  assembling  at  dinners 
to  celebrate  the  beginning  or  end  of  an  apprenticeship  and 
the  asking  of  subscriptions  for  a  common  cause;  forbade  the 
use  of  the  word  "trie"  (a  signal  used  when  work  was  to  be 
stopped  for  a  strike);  forbade  grumbling  if  work  in  a  hurry 
should  be  distributed  among  a  number  of  workmen;  and 
prohibited  them  from  absence  on  eves  of  festivals  and  from 
working  on  the  feast-day  itself.  Masters  were  to  give  jour- 
neymen reasonable  nourishment,  pay  them  monthly,  dis- 
miss any  who  were  mutinous  or  disreputable;  were  to  insist 
on  eight  days'  notice  before  workmen  could  leave  them  (al- 
though they  were  not  to  give  notice  of  dismissal  to  work- 
men); were  not  to  hire  away  one  another's  work-people,  or 
use  one  another's  printers'  devices.  They  were  also  obliged 
to  have  proofreaders  who  knew  how  to  correct  proofs  prop- 
erly. The  working  day  was  fixed  from  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  eight  o'clock  at  night.  Type-foundries  were 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      257 

included  in  the  preceding  rules.  The  King  approved  the 
proposals  and  they  became  law.  In  Lyons,  it  was  the  jour- 
neymen who  complained;  in  Paris,  the  masters  saw  an  op- 
portunity to  secure  more  pow  er  by  precipitating  questions 
which  forestalled  like  complaints.  In  August,  1539,  when 
the  law  was  promulgated,  the  Paris  strike  began.  The  dis- 
turbances which  it  caused  were  not  settled  by  the  Crown 
until  thirty  years  later  —  in  1572,  by  a  compromise  which 
was  satisfactory  neither  to  the  employers  nor  the  employed. 

Meanwhile,  at  Lyons  the  printing  industry  was  ruined. 
The  master-printers  decided  to  leave  the  city  for  Vienne  in 
Dauphiny,  or  some  other  place  where  conditions  were  bet- 
ter. The  Lyons  authorities,  frightened  at  the  removal  of  an 
industry  and  invested  capital  which  would  hurt  the  pros- 
perity of  the  town  (for  next  to  Paris,  Lyons  was  the  great 
centre  for  printing),  met  the  masters  and  endeavoured  to  find 
some  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  An  appeal  was  made  to  the 
King,  who  finally  modified  the  laws  in  effect  at  Lyons,  in 
accord  with  rulings  which  had  been  enforced  at  Paris; 
but  it  was  only  after  some  years  of  negotiation  that  the 
matter  was  finally  settled,  and  then  only  by  royal  authority. 
It  is  recorded  that  among  the  many  master-printers  of 
Lyons,  Etienne  Dolet,  the  author-printer-bookseller,  alone 
sided  with  the  workmen,  and  incurred,  by  so  doing,  the  last- 
ing hostility  of  other  master-printers  —  a  hostility  which 
had  something  to  do  with  the  troubles  to  which  he  later  fell 
victim,  Dolet,  who  had  been  proofreader  for  Gryphius,  and 
Mas  friend  to  Jean  de  Tournes,  was  hanged  at  Paris  in 
1546  for  heretical  opinions,  and  his  body  and  books  burned 
together. 

These  are  but  two  episodes  in  the  history  of  the  print- 
ing trade  in  France  during  the  sixteenth  century.  Conditions 
were  probably  the  same  in  greater  or  less  degree  in  England, 


258  PRINTING  TYPES 

Holland,  Germany,  and  Italy.  At  any  rate, enough  has  been 
said  to  show  how  very  like  the  industrial  conditions  were 
then  to  those  we  know  now.  Some  of  the  details  seem  very 
modern ;  and  yet  Aldus  had  been  dead  only  about  twenty 
years  when  these  strikes  began,  and  the  Aldine  Office  still 
existed  and  was  to  exist  for  years  to  come. 


IV 

WE  have  seen  what  French  industrial  conditions  were 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  At  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  what 
was  the  condition  of  printing  at  Paris  ? 

There  was  a  certain  Pierre  Jacques  Blondel  who,  about 
1724,  wrote  a  sarcastic  memoir  on  Parisian  booksellers 
and  printers,^  which,  though  not,  perhaps,  to  be  taken  too 
seriously,  casts  light  upon  the  situation  at  that  time.  It  is 
amusing  to  find  the  writer  begin,  as  we  are  apt  to  do  to-day, 
by  telling  about  the  wonderful  old  times  of  long  ago.  In  the 
happy  days  of  Frangois  I,  he  says,  wistfully,  there  were  men 
like  the  Estiennes,'  the  De  Colines,  Vascosans,  Morels,  and 

'  Memoire  sur  les  Vexations  qu" exercent  les  Libraires  et  Imfirimeurs  de 
Paris,  fiublie  d'a/ir?s  rimfirime  de  1725  et  le  manuscrit  de  la  Bibliothique 
de  la  Ville  de  Paris  par  Liicien  Faucou.  Paris,  1879.  For  laws  relating  to 
bookselling  and  printing  in  Paris  in  the  eighteenth  century,  see  Code  de  La 
Librairie  et  Imfirimerie  de  Paris,  ou  Conference  du  Reglement  arrete  au 
Conseil  d' Etat  du  Roy,  le  28  Fevrier  1723.  .  .  .  Avec  les  jinciennes  Or- 
donnances,  Fdits,  Declarations,  Arrets,  Reglemens  Isf  Jugemens  rendua 
au  sujet  de  la  Librairie  iJf  de  P Im/iri?tierie,  de/iuis  ran  1332,  jusqu'a  /ire- 
sent.  A  Paris,  aux  Defiens  de  la  Commmiaute.  1744. 
'Yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  Latin  poem  was  written  by  Henri  Es- 
tienne  II  in  1569,  entitled  Artis  Tyfiografihicm  Querimonia,  de  illiteratis  qui- 
busdam  Tyfiografihis,  firofiter  quos  in  contemfitum  venit.  It  was  translated 
into  French  by  Lottin  in  1785,  the  title  reading,  Plainte  de  la  Tyfiografihie 
contre  certains  im/irijneurs  ignorans  qui  lui  ont  attire  le  me/iris  ou  elle  est 
tombee. 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      259 

others,  who  were  "all  men  of  letters,  clever  in  their  profes- 
sion and  much  more  anxious  to  perfect  their  art  than  to 
make  immense  fortunes."  And  then  Blondel  goes  onto  speak 
of  theCamusats,the  Vitres,  and  the  Cramoisys  as  men  who, 
if  not  so  learned,  were  at  least  of  respectable  standing;  capa- 
ble, as  he  quaintly  says,  of  "consoling  the  Republic  of  Let- 
ters for  the  loss  of  the  first  group  of  printers."  Here  we  have 
two  sets  of  men.  Note  that  the  first  class,  who  lived  two  hun- 
dred years  before  Blondel  wrote,  were  perfect  prodigies  of 
learning,  while  the  second  group,  living  nearer  Blondel's 
time,  though  less  learned  were  still  acceptable.  "But,"  says 
Blondel,  "into  what  decadence  has  this  important  art  fallen 
in  our  day,  especially  in  Paris!  What  a  gap  there  is  be- 
tween the  printers  that  I  named  and  those  who  mix  them- 
selves up  in  printing  now  and  who  degrade  a  noble  art  by 
the  meanest  manoeuvres!  .  .  .  The  earliest  printers  were 
industrious,  they  applied  themselves  to  their  profession, 
they  were  versed  in  belles-lettres  and  the  learned  tongues. 
To-day,  printers  are  men  occupied  solely  in  gain  or  amuse- 
ment, without  special  knowledge  and  for  the  greater  part 
without  general  education  —  as  we  say,  ignorant  and  un- 
lettered men.  ...  If  some  of  them  went  to  college  in  their 
youth,  they  brought  away  but  a  mere  smattering  of  learn- 
ing, .  .  .  and  the  rest  are  simply  tradesmen  who  have  made 
their  fortune  in  second-hand  books  and  who  began  their 
career  in  situations  so  very  different  from  their  present  call- 
ing that  it  is  a  wonder  they  are  printers  at  all !  They  are 
printers,  not  because  of,  but  in  spite  of  literature  and  men 
of  learning ;  and  furthermore,  are  rich  printers,  which  edu- 
cated men  will  never  be."  While  Blondel  is  ready  to  admit 
that  there  are  two  or  three  persons  in  the  profession  at  his 
own  period  who  can  be  respected,  he  thinks  that  most  of 
them  are  mainly  supported  by  a  bibliomania  encouraged  by 


260  PRINTING  TYPES 

financial  magnates,  who  are  in  turn  actuated  more  by  van- 
ity than  by  taste  or  intelligence.  He  proceeds  to  describe 
the  annoyances  suffered  by  the  public,  the  authors,  and  last 
of  all  by  the  workmen  themselves. 

The  privileges  which  the  king  accorded  for  the  printing 
of  books  (to  the  thirty-six  printers  fixed  by  law  by  the  edict 
of  1686),Blondel  reminds  us,expressly  stipulated  that  books 
should  be  printed  on  good  paper  and  from  good  type,  and 
if  they  were  not,  the  privilege  became  null  and  void.  Print- 
ers and  booksellers,  however,  now  sold  books  of  importance 
printed  on  wretched  paper,  from  battered  types,  carelessly 
corrected — all  to  avoid  expense.  If  the  public  complained,  it 
complained  without  redress.  Moreri's  historical  dictionary^ 
could  not  be  bound  properly,  because  the  ink  was  so  poor 
that  it  oifset  upon  opposite  pages,  and  some  books  were 
so  carelessly  printed  that  whole  lines  of  text  ^vere  left  out. 
Greek  characters  were  used  which  were  so  worn  that  the 
accents  could  not  be  distinguished.  Booksellers,  who  had  to 
obtain  a  license  for  each  new  edition  of  a  book,  evaded  this 
requirement  by  omitting  the  number  of  the  edition  on  the 
title-page,  or  by  placing  old  dates  on  new  editions. The  Eng- 
lish at  that  period  had  a  method  of  publishing  works  by 
subscription — a  number  of  subscribers  clubbing  together 
to  finance  the  expense  of  a  book,  each  subscriber  receiving 
copies  of  the  edition  so  published  at  a  lower  price  than 
outsiders.  The  French  publisher  took  up  this  scheme  and 
improved  upon  it.  He  secured  the  subscribers'  money  in 
advance  and  this  furnished  the  chief  part  of  the  capital  ne- 
cessary for  the  enterprise ;  and  though  subscribers  got  their 
books  cheaper  than  outsiders,  yet  they  paid  exorbitantly  for 
them.  Nor  did  the  publisher,  having  received  the  subscrip- 

'  Louis  Moreri's  (1643-1680)  Grand  Dictionnaire  historique,  ou  Melange 
nirieux  de  r histoire  sacree  et  firofane. 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      261 

tions,  hurry  to  issue  the  book.  As  long  as  it  was  ultimately 
printed,  he  thought  it  "did  just  as  well";  and  should  any 
subscriber  venture  to  suggest  that  the  work  ought  to  ap- 
pear, his  subscription  would  be  haughtily  returned.  Blondel 
says,  humorously,  that  if  r/// the  subscribers  had  only  asked 
for  the  return  of  subscriptions,  somebody  would  have  been 
much  embarrassed!  Again,  when  the  public  complained  that 
books  cost  a  great  deal,  the  publisher  said  that  paper  was 
dear,  that  workmen  insisted  on  enormous  wages,  —  though 
workmen  were  really  scandalously  underpaid, —  and  that, 
after  all,  it  was  merely  to  keep  business  going  that  they 
printed  at  all;  they  would  willingly  shut  up  shop,  for  all 
the  profit  they  got  out  of  it!  But  in  spite  of  all  this,  no  less 
a  person  than  Jean  Baptiste  Coignard  11,^  who  with  Denis 
Mariette  printed  Moreri's  dictionary,  boasted  that  every  time 
he  published  an  edition  he  was  able  to  marry  off  a  daugh- 
ter with  a  comfortable  dowry.  Some  pious  individuals,  who 
wished  to  publish  religious  books  at  their  own  expense,  to 
be  distributed  gratis  among  the  poor,  or  sold  at  a  small  price 
to  those  in  modest  circumstances,  were  astonished  to  find, 
after  these  works  of  edification  had  been  delivered  to  them 
and  paid  for,  that  before  they  could  be  distributed  they  were 
seized  by  booksellers  as  about  to  be  illegally  sold  ^^•ithout 
a  license.  Those  who  seized  them  then  sold  them  a  second 
time  for  their  own  benefit. 

The  master-printers  of  an  older  day  had  the  reputation 
of  attracting  educated  men,  whom  they  treated  "with  some 
consideration  and  not  like  convicts."  But  master-printers 
of  Blondel's  epoch  had  arrived  at  their  position,  as  we  have 
seen,  not  by  knowledge  or  experience,  but  by  favouritism 
and  money.  In  other  trades,  masters  directed  their  appren- 

'  Second  of  the  three  Jean  Baptiste  Coignards,  all  eminent  Parisian  printers, 
who  held,  among  otlicr  posts,  that  of  printers  to  the  jicadtmie  Fran<;aise. 


262  PRINTING  TYPES 

tices,  but  here  it  was  the  apprentices  who  directed  their 
masters.  Masters  were  not  only  ignorant,  but  absolutely  in- 
capable of  working  at  the  calling  of  which  they  were  osten- 
sibly the  heads.  They  had  been,  most  of  them,  neither  ap- 
prentices nor  journeymen,  but  simply  moneyed  men, — or 
sons  of  prosperous  booksellers, —  who  looked  at  the  whole 
affair  as  trade,  and  who  set  up  a  printing-office  because 
they  thought  they  were  rich  enough  to  make  it  succeed. 
Workmen  had  from  time  to  time  brought  complaints  to 
Parliament,  and  masters  had  been  forbidden  by  its  decrees 
to  harass  them  or  to  require  that  workmen  who  wished 
to  change  their  place  of  employment  must  carry  letters  of 
recommendation  from  the  old  to  the  new  master  —  a  plan 
which,  the  authorities  perceived,  reduced  workmen  "to  a 
servitude  from  which  the  commonest  servant  in  France 
is  exempt,  because  he  is  at  least  permitted  to  change  his 
place  if  he  wishes."  Then,  again,  master-printers  had  so  in- 
fluenced legislation,  that  when  workmen  tried  to  get  justice, 
they  found  themselves  forbidden  by  law  to  act  in  a  collec- 
tive capacity,  and  consequently  could  not  legally  complain 
collectively  before  any  tribunal.  The  men's  wages  were  arbi- 
trated at  a  sort  of  board  of  trade,  and  were  often  determined 
by  persons  who  knew  nothing  about  typography  or  how 
much  should  be  given  to  the  printer  for  each  page  he  com- 
posed. "You  might  as  well,"  says  Blondel,  "have  the  tailors 
tell  the  cloth-makers  what  wages  they  should  pay  their 
employees,"  and,  "in  fact,"  he  adds, "  a  great  deal  better,  be- 
cause the  tailors  are  far  more  conversant  with  the  qualities 
of  cloth  than  are  publishers  with  printing  and  paper.  All 
they  know  is  (as  Harlequin  said)  that  the  white  is  the  paper 
and  the  black  is  the  print." 

If  any  workman  complained  of  the  insufficient  wages,  he 
was  called  mutinous,  seditious,  and  dissipated;  and  yet,  ac- 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      263 

cording  to  the  statistics  of  the  period,  among  the  six  hundred 
journeymen  printers  in  Paris,  there  were  very  few  who  led 
loose  lives;  and  Blondel  adds  sarcastically  that  "the  ex- 
tremelv  small  wages  which  they  received  w  ere  not  capable 
of  furnishing  the  means  for  very  serious  dissipation!"  That 
the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  Blondel  reminds  his 
readers,  is  a  precept  of  the  Gospel;  but  the  Gospel  did  not 
interest  Parisian  booksellers  —  unless  it  was  to  be  printed. 

If  an  author  w  as  in  a  hurry  to  get  his  book  finished,  but 
some  new  work  of  a  more  important  and  paying  sort  came 
to  the  printing-office,  ^\  ork-people  were  taken  off  the  book 
the  author  was  clamouring  for,  and  were  compelled  to  stay 
all  night  working  on  the  more  profitable  job  that  had  to  be 
printed  quickly.  If  an  author  complained  that  his  book  did 
not  get  on  fast  enough,  what  was  the  reply?  It  \\  as  that 
printers  were  dissipated,  and  that,  of  course,  was  not  the 
fault  of  the  publisher ! 

Two  well-known  Paris  publishers  and  printers,  Barbou^ 
and  David,"  "  as  stingy  as  they  were  unprincipled,"  says 
Blondel,  employed  a  publisher  who  had  correspondents  in 
various  countries  to  secure  printers  from  Germany,  whom 
they  would  engage  to  pay  three  livres  a  day,  together  with 
washing,  lodging,  and  food.  Eight  German  workmen,  on 
the  strength  of  the  publisher's  letter  (which,  unfortunately 
for  them,  they  left  behind  at  Frankfort),  accepted  the  offer. 
Six  of  them  ^\•ent  to  Barbou,  two  to  David.  They  all  worked 
exactly  three  days.  Then  Barbou  said  he  was  not  satisfied, 
because  the  men  were  Germans  and  did  not  know  French ; 
also  he  alleged  that  they  did  not  work  in  the  Parisian,  but 

'  JosephBarbou.of  the  eminent  family  of  Barbou,  printers  at  Lyons,  Limoges, 
and  Paris,  who  exercised   their  profession  from   1524  to  1820.  Most  of 
Foumier's  books  bear  tlieir  imprint. 
*  According  to  Lottin,  this  was  Christophe  David  II. 


264  PRINTING  TYPES 

in  the  German  method  —  which  (at  this  late  period)  appears 
to  us  natural.  He  would  consent  to  keep  them,  he  declared, 
only  at  tn  o  I'lvres  daily  to  include  everything  and  on  condi- 
tion they  \\ould  engage  to  stay  with  him  for  three  years. 
The  men  refused,  saying  that  living  was  dear  in  Paris,  they 
were  accustomed  to  a  good  table,  and  they  could  not  afford  to 
stay  at  the  wages  offered.  So  Barbou  locked  them  up  in  his 
printing-office  without  food,  and  there  they  remained  until 
they  made  so  much  noise  that  he  was  shamed  into  setting 
them  free.  When  the  men  tried  to  return  to  Germany,  the 
masters  held  back  their  luggage.  Their  French  comrades, 
angry  at  such  scurvy  treatment  of  strangers,  made  up  a 
purse  and  sent  them  home.  This  the  master-printers  con- 
sidered insulting  and  insupportable  to  the  last  degree,  and 
described  as  an  attitude  of  open  revolt. 

At  that  day,  there  were  six  hundred  printers  in  Paris, 
and  great  opposition  was  made  to  bringing  in  foreigners  at 
all.  "Why,"  says  Blondel,  "should  people  import  labour? 
What  injustice  it  is  to  hire  abroad  people  who  take  the 
bread  out  of  the  hands  of  the  French  workmen."  Little  the 
masters  cared  whether  their  men  were  foreign  or  native, 
learned  or  ignorant!  "They  judged  their  qualifications  by 
their  own,"  he  adds,  "  and  as  many  of  the  master-printers 
hardly  know  how  to  read,  they  are  absurd  enough  to  sup- 
pose that  it  is  not  necessary  to  know  more,  in  order  to  be 
capable  of  correctly  producing  Greek,  Latin,  French,  and 
scientific  works.  ...  If  this  sort  of  thing  goes  on,  they  will 
make  negroes  come  to  work  at  printing,  as  they  employ 
them  in  the  Indies  to  produce  indigo  and  sugar. " 

But  Parisian  publishers  in  these  sad,  bad  old  times,  did 
not  worry  as  to  whether  the  books  they  printed  wtvt  cor- 
rect, or  well  produced,  provided  they  could  sell  them  at  a 
high  price.  Illustrated  Bibles  had  been  printed  a  hundred 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      265 

years  earlier  which  were  cheaply  and  tastefully  brought  out, 
but  new  editions — sold  at  a  high  price — contained  plates 
disgraceful  in  their  slovenly  execution.  Editions  of  poetry 
were  issued, badly  printed,wretchedly  composed,  with  pages 
swarming  with  faults  of  spelling  and  punctuation.  Absurd 
errors,  the  correction  of  which  was  absolutely  essential,  were 
passed  over.  In  a  book  of  prayers  for  the  use  of  lay -people, 
a  passage  in  St.  Matthew  was  made  to  read  iion  timebis 
Dominum  instead  of  non  tentabis^  and  in  a  missal,  the  Canon 
of  the  Mass  lacked  a  word. 

"Instead,"  Blondel  concludes,  "of  keeping  the  loyalty  of 
their  workmen  by  fair  wages  and  inciting  honest  endeavour, 
the  master-printers  hold  them  only  to  persecute  them,  to 
decry  their  value,  and  to  enviously  snatch  the  very  bread 
from  their  hands.  Was  there  ever  such  terrible  oppression ! 
Slaves  at  Algiers  do  not  fare  worse.  Is  n't  this  precisely  the 
way  to  disgust  decently  educated  men,  as  journeymen  ought 
to  be,  with  such  an  ungrateful  employment?  .  .  .  If  matters 
go  on  in  this  way,  and  a  deaf  ear  is  persistently  turned  to  their 
complaints,  they  will  flee  a  country  where  they  groan  under 
oppression.  ...  It  is  not  to  scandalize  people,  that  this  me- 
moir is  written ;  it  is  to  end  a  violence  so  tyrannical  that 
there  is  no  way  of  opposing  it  save  to  cry  loudly :  Stop  thief ! " 

The  tone  of  much  of  this  is  disconcertingly  modern.  The  in- 
troduction of  the  ill-paid  and  inexperienced  foreign  ^\•ork- 
man,  the  oppression  of  the  helpless  labourer,  the  objection 
to  his  forming  any  corporate  opposing  body,  the  associa- 
tion of  employers  to  determine  the  wages  to  be  paid,  the 
statement  that  books  were  dear  because  the  workmen  re- 
ceived such  large  returns — all  these  things  are  familiar  to 
us.  Our  own  troubles  to-day  are  only  repetitions  of  these 
old  tumults :  no  more  bitter,  but  on  a  greater  scale. 


266  PRINTING  TYPES 

Blondel's  memoir  was  satirical, —  and  intentionally  so, — 
but  it  stated  facts  and  reflected  the  general  opinion  upon 
conditions  among  booksellers  and  printers  in  Paris  in  the 
last  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  first  quarter 
of  the  eighteenth.  It  made  some  noise,  and  (as  was  intended) 
aroused  the  authorities,  who  spent  much  time  in  trying  to 
find  out  who  wrote  it  and  where  it  was  printed.  As  a  result, 
some  real  reforms  were  effected.  Publishers  were  obliged 
to  submit  to  regulations  which  required  the  use  of  better 
paper  and  greater  correctness  in  printing,  and  in  the  matter 
of  subscription  books  they  were  held  to  stricter  standards. 


THE  censorship  of  books  and  its  later  development  were 
further  handicaps  under  which  printers  of  old  times 
had  to  work — for  freedom  was  first  allowed  to  the  press  in 
France  in  1789.  The  inspection  of  the  book-trade  under  the 
kings  of  France  was  extremely  severe,  and  imposed  a  strict 
surveillance  upon  every  conceivable  aspect  of  the  printer's 
and  bookseller's  business,  and  a  drastic  censorship  of  all 
printed  books.  It  was  forbidden,  under  pain  of  punishment 
and  fines,  for  any  private  persons,  except  master-printers, 
to  have  or  to  keep  in  any  place  whatsoever,  or  under  any 
pretext,  any  press,  type,  forms,  or  printer's  tools ;  and  to 
every  one  except  the  bookselling  publishers,  to  take  part  in 
the  commerce,  sale,  or  purchase  of  books.  All  w^orks  printed 
without  permission  were  taken  from  those  who  were  at 
fault,  and  in  case  they  contained  anything  contrary  to  re- 
ligion, the  King,  the  State,  or  public  morality,  the  authors, 
printers,  and  publishers  who  had  written,  printed,  or  sold 
such  books  could  be  condemned  and  punished  as  disturb- 
ers of  the  public  peace ;  while  the  printers,  booksellers,  and 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      267 

peddlers  could  be  degraded  from  their  trade  and  declared  in- 
capable of  exercising  it.  Type-founders  were  not  permitted 
to  deliver  fonts  of  types  to  any  one  except  master-printers, 
or  their  widows  carrying  on  the  business;  nor  could  thev 
sell  to  any  one  save  masters  in  the  trade,  printers,  and  book- 
sellers, in  large  or  small  quantities,  their  punches,  strikes, 
and  matrices.  The  quartierde  V  Universite  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Seine,  in  which  printers  were  obliged  to  live  and  work, 
was  exactly  marked  in  its  limits,  and  non-residence  there 
was  punished  by  loss  of  outfit  and  sometimes  by  depriva- 
tion of  privilege. 

The  oversight  of  all  this  was  exercised  by  different 
classes  of  police  inspectors.  One  of  the  eighteenth  century 
officials,  d'Hemery,  who  became  the  general  inspector  of 
the  whole  bookselling  community,  was  authorized  to  make 
visits  to  any  bookseller  or  printer  whom  he  chose  to  see, 
either  by  night  or  by  day,  and  to  have  an  account  given  of 
anything  that  he  happened  to  find,  about  which  he  wished 
to  learn.  He  considered  it  necessary  to  know  the  precise 
number  of  presses  and  the  amount  of  type  in  every  print- 
ing-office, and  to  possess  proofs  of  all  vignettes  and  orna- 
mental letters.  Founders  were  not  to  be  allowed,  ^^•ithout  his 
consent,  to  deliver  fonts  of  type  without  giving  him  a  dec- 
laration of  their  number,  weight,  and  kind,  and  the  names 
of  those  to  whom  they  were  to  be  sold.  He  even  expected  a 
list  of  all  the  apprentices  in  Paris,  to  whom  he  wished  to  fur- 
nish tickets  of  ingress  and  egress  for  the  particular  print- 
ing-office in  which  they  were  employed.  The  power  that  he 
asked  for  was  not  fully  granted;  but  it  indicates  an  agree- 
able conception  of  his  own  sphere  of  labour ! 

It  would  seem  logical  that  the  author  should  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  his  ideas  rather  than  the  printer;  but  in  early 
times,  the  printer  suffered  and  the  author  often  went  free. 


268  PRINTING  TYPES 

Mellottee  tells  us  that  this  was  due  to  the  theory  that  the 
printer  provided  the  author  with  the  means  of  promulgat- 
ing the  errors  in  his  works,  and  that  it  was  not  attacks  upon 
religion  or  existing  institutions  that  were  thought  danger- 
ous, but  rather  the  popularization  of  such  attacks;  in  other 
words,  the  fact  that  they  were  printed  and  widely  distrib- 
uted. In  the  Middle  Ages,  before  the  invention  of  printing, 
there  had  been  many  philosophers  with  heretical  ideas,  but 
they  had  been  quickly  stifled  by  the  Church  or  the  Crown. 
All  this  was  quite  different  after  the  invention  of  printing. 
Such  people  no  longer  merely  addressed  an  assembly  of  a 
few  hundred  individuals,  but  could  make  their  appeal  to  an 
entire  people,  and  printing  being  the  only  means  which 
could  give  such  power  to  thought,  repressive  legislation  fell 
upon  printers  rather  than  upon  authors.  It  was  for  this  rea- 
son that  such  severe  and  rigorous  penalties  were  inflicted 
in  support  of  the  censorship  of  the  press;  for  the  men  of 
the  sixteenth  century  were  so  frightened  at  what  appeared 
to  them  its  incalculable  power,  that  they  took  extreme  mea- 
sures to  counteract  this  new  force.  Besides  confiscation 
and  degradation,  the  ordinary  punishments  were  imprison- 
ment, whipping,  or  banishment,  and  capital  punishment  was 
not  uncommon.  These  pains  and  penalties  were  not  alone 
applicable  to  printers  because  they  produced  dangerous 
publications,  but  even  to  people  who  merely  neglected  to 
take  out  proper  authorization  for  otherwise  harmless  work. 
In  1547,  punishment  by  death  was  proclaimed  against  all 
printers  who  published  a  book  without  the  impiimatur  of 
the  faculty  of  theology  of  Paris.  It  was  not  only  in  the  six- 
teenth century  that  death  was  meted  out  to  printers,  but  as 
late  as  1757,  the  declaration  was  made  by  the  civil  power 
that  all  persons  who  were  convicted  of  having  composed 
or  printed  works  tending  to  attack  religion,  to  disturb  the 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      269 

public  mind,  or  against  royal  authority,  or  the  order  and 
security  of  the  government,  were  punishable  by  death.  It  is 
true  that  judges  avoided  these  extreme  measures  as  far  as 
they  could;  but  from  1660  to  1756,  less  than  a  century, 
eight  hundred  and  ninety-six  authors,  printers,  and  sellers 
of  books,  prints,  and  pictures  were  arrested  and  imprisoned 
in  the  Bastille  for  having  published  works  contrary  to  good 
manners,  religion,  or  the  Crown.  A  third  of  these  men  were 
printers.  In  addition  to  the  more  severe  punishments  men- 
tioned above  ^vas  the  public  burning  of  volumes  at  the 
hands  of  the  hangman  —  the  author  himself  being  occa- 
sionally added  as  kindling  to  the  flames,  as  in  the  case 
of  Dolet.  This  charming  custom  was  practised  during  the 
happy  days  of  the  manuscript-makers,  and,  as  far  as  print- 
ing is  concerned,  was  merely  the  survival  of  a  picturesque 
old-world  ceremony  applied  to  a  new  form  of  industry.^ 

It  was  much  the  same  all  over  Europe.  In  the  Nether- 
lands, for  instance,  edicts  were  enforced  by  Charles  V  and 
Philip  II  against  printers  who  purchased  or  sold  books  fa- 
vourable to  the  Reformation ;  and  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
Plantin  was  granted  the  post  of  proto-typographer,which  em- 
powered him  to  examine  all  candidates  for  the  printer's  and 
engraver's  trades.  Among  requisite  letters  \\hich  a  printer 
must  produce  was  a  certificate  from  his  diocesan  authorities 
that  he  was  of  the  orthodox  faith,  while  the  magistrate  of  the 
district  bore  witness  to  his  good  reputation.  The  number  of 
apprentices  in  his  employ  —  if  he  was  a  master-printer — 
had  to  be  stated.  Proofreaders  had  to  give  certificates  of 
birth,  parentage,  places  of  education  and  training,  and  good 

'  Under  such  conditions,  printers  and  publishers  had  recourse  to  all  sorts  of 
stratagems  to  conceal  tlieir  connection  with  a  book.  They  invented  names  of 
imaginary  cities  for  their  imprints,  to  which  they  added  equally  imaginary' 
publishers,  non-existent  streets,  and  absurd  emblems  which  have  caused  no 
end  of  bewilderment  to  innocent  readers. 


270  PRINTING  TYPES 

reputation  as  Roman  Catholics,  prior  to  an  examination  of 
their  skill.  Registers  were  kept,  in  which  titles  of  the  books 
printed  and  other  particulars  had  to  be  inscribed.  Imported 
books  were  subject  to  examination,  and  any  sold  in  Antwerp 
had  to  be  recorded.  Houses  in  which  heretical  books  had 
been  printed  were  abbatues  et  ruynees  par  terre!^  quite  in 
the  modern  German  manner. 


VI 

AS  to  production — in  1571,  three  hundred  to  five  hun- 
-IV  dred  sheets  a  day  was  considered  a  good  output, 
but  in  1654,  it  was  twenty-seven  hundred;  and  in  1650, 
twenty-five  hundred  was  the  rule.  These  were  for  sheets 
printed  in  black,  but  twenty-two  hundred  was  considered 
enough  if  red  was  also  used.  These  sheets  were  printed  by 
hand  on  a  screw-press.  Such  requirements  put  to  flight  our 
pleasant  idea  that  work  in  the  old  days  had  none  of  the 
rush  about  it  that  it  has  now. 

Hours  of  work  for  foremen,  workers  by  the  day,  and 
workers  by  the  piece,  were  from  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
until  eight  o'clock  at  night  in  summer ;  and  in  winter,  from 
seven  in  the  morning  until  nine  o'clock.  This  was  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  But  agitation  by  work-people  about  the 
length  of  the  working  day  began  as  early  as  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  was  neither  the  child  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, nor  the  offspring  of  modern  socialism.  In  1395,  shorter 
hours,  with  the  same  wages  given  for  a  longer  working  day, 
was  a  practical  question.  The  Lyons  printers  complained 
in  1571  that  their  day  began  at  two  in  the  morning  and 
lasted  until  eight  or  nine  in  the  evening ;  and  this  for  print- 
See  Rombout's  Certificats  delivres aux Imfirimeurs  du  Pays-Bas fiar  Chria- 
tofihe  Plantin.  Antwerp,  1881. 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS      271 

ers  does  not  seem  to  have  been  unusual.  Night  work,  as 
such,  it  is  true,  was  forbidden, — although  most  persons  do 
not  much  differentiate  between  2  a.m.  and  night — not  be- 
cause it  was  bad  for  the  workman,  but,  among  other  less 
creditable  reasons,  because  the  danger  from  fire  was  great 
and  because  the  flickering  lights  of  the  period  did  not  permit 
men  to  do  justice  to  their  tasks.  In  England,  the  working 
hours  varied  in  different  trades,  and  at  different  places  and 
periods.  Even  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, the  ordinary  working  hours  of  the  printer  were  un- 
limited—  though  nommally  from  7  a.m.  to  8  p.m.  —  in  such 
excellent  London  printing-houses  as  that  of  the  Spottis- 
woodes. 

If  economic  conditions  are  notkept  in  mind,  we  misunder- 
stand the  significance  of  certain  historical  facts,  and  twist 
them  to  fit  some  fantastic  theory.  For  instance,  people  talk 
loosely  about  great  printing  dynasties  like  the  Estiennes, 
Elzevirs,  Plantin-Moretus,  etc.,  where  generations  of  the 
same  family  succeeded  each  other  as  printers.  This  was 
caused  to  some  extent,  no  doubt,  by  interest  in  and  attach- 
ment to  the  w  ork ;  but  it  was  also  due  to  an  economic  reason. 
The  amount  to  be  had  by  the  sale  of  the  equipment  of  a 
printing-house  was,  as  in  our  time,  by  no  means  commen- 
surate with  the  money  value  of  the  business  if  it  could  be 
carried  on.  That  was  the  chief  reason  why  large  printing- 
offices  were  continued  by  one  family,  or  by  a  long  succession 
of  partners.  We  know,  too,  that  in  early  times  the  widows 
and  daughters  of  master-printers  were  in  great  demand, 
because  when  a  qualified  journeyman  married  the  widow  or 
daughter  of  a  master-printer,  he  acquired  privileges  facili- 
tating his  reception  as  a  master.  And  this  was  another  of 
the  causes  for  great  printing  families — which  we  like  to 
style  "printing  dynasties"  if  it  all  happened  long  enough 


272  PRINTING  TYPES 

ago !  It  was  more  commonplace  and  simpler — more  reason- 
able—  than  we  think. 

Nor  were  women  in  the  bad  old  times  permitted  to  lead 
peaceable  lives,  occupied  by  the  cradle  and  the  distaff".  From 
the  time  of  St.  Louis,  women  were  employed  in  trades  re- 
served for  them  —  we  find  records  of  their  names  and  occu- 
pations as  early  as  1296.  Quite  apart  from  learned  ladies  like 
Charlotte  Guillard,  who  printed  and  published  her  famous 
Greek  and  Latin  editions  of  the  Fathers  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  women  were  very  early  employed  in  the  humbler 
branches  of  typography,  and  women  have  been  in  our  com- 
posing-rooms almost  ever  since.  Like  child-labour,  it  is 
nothing  new;  very  few  industrial  "novelties"  are! 


VII 

THERE  is,  therefore,  litde  excuse  for  thinking  that  con- 
ditions of  labour  to-day  are  very  different  from  those 
that  long  preceded  them;  and  it  is  important  to  realize  that 
these  conditions  were  all  along  factors,  as  they  are  now,  in 
the  problem  of  turning  out  good  printing.  Types  and  books 
reffect  the  state  of  the  arts  around  them,  because  on  one 
side  typography  is  an  art ;  but  they  are  influenced  by  trade 
conditions,  because  it  is  also  a  trade.  Not  to  face  these  two 
facts,  or  to  neglect  either  one  or  the  other,  is  merely  to  fool 
one's  self! 

To  make  a  book  which  should  look  like  a  manuscript, 
and  indeed  counterfeit  it,  was  what  the  first  printers  tried 
to  do.  They  wished  to  reproduce  the  manuscript  of  com- 
merce as  nearly  as  they  could,  and  they  did  it  by  imitadng 
such  manuscripts  in  type.  It  was  an  effort  to  make  cheaply 
what  had  before  been  made  expensively.  Incidentally,  they 
imitated  beautiful  written  books,  but  there  is  no  proof  that 


CONCLUSION  273 

their  printed  books  were  always  consciously  intended  to  be 
beautiful. 

All  alont^,  the  changes  in  books  were  influenced  by  com- 
mercial conditions.  The  first  books  were  folios — large  and 
dear.  What  did  the  printer  do?  He  produced  books  which 
were  small  and  cheap,  and  we  have  the  Aldine  16mo  vol- 
umes, printed  in  italic  (a  letter  adopted  chiefly  because  it 
was  compact),  for  their  period  perfectly  commercial  though 
attractive  editions.  Again,  Pigouchet  and  Verard  at  Paris 
printed  their  Books  of  Hours,  and  they  were  very  charming 
volumes.  They  were  not  as  charming  as  the  manuscripts 
from  which  they  were  copied,  but  they  were  far,  far  cheaper. 
By  and  by,  when  printers  discovered  the  ignorance  of  the 
public  and  its  willingness  to  buy  books  however  badly 
printed,  they  dared  to  make  them  poorer  and  poorer.  They 
printed  what  we  call  "good"  books,  because  ours  are  worse ; 
but  what  they  thought  ^vere  poor  ones,  because  older  books 
had  been  so  much  better.  This  they  did  because  they  could 
sell  them,  and  because  they  did  not  even  then  realize  what 
we  know  now — how  wretchedly  books  can  be  made  and 
still  be  sold!  In  short,  the  rank  and  file  of  early  printers  were 
not  often  actuated  by  conscious  artistic  standards,  and  they 
had  trade  conditions  to  struggle  against,  just  as  we  have, 
and  in  an  environment  singularly  like  that  of  to-day. 

Yet  beautiful  printing  was  done,  and  fine  books  were 
made,  because  there  were  a  few  men  among  these  earlv 
printers  who  were  actuated  by  conscious  artistic  standards, 
and  who  made  trade  conditions  helps,  and  not  hindrances, 
to  successful  production.  To  print  things  suitably  and  well 
was  the  problem  of  the  good  printer  then,  just  as  it  is  now. 
The  few  printers  and  publishers  w  ho  were  then  faithful  to 
artistic  and  scholarlv  standards  in  the  face  of  trade  condi- 
tions  are  the  men  who  did  this,  and  the  men  we  remember. 


274  PRINTING  TYPES 

As  in  the  Roman  alphabet  as  opposed  to  other  alphabets — 
as  in  certain  famous  types  as  opposed  to  other  types  —  we 
see  a  survival  of  the  fittest,  so  the  printers  whose  names  have 
survived  have  had  a  modest  immortality  because,  though 
few,  they  were  fit. 

Apparently  it  was  not  so  much  conditions  as  personality 
and  education  that  produced  the  fine  books  of  early  days. 
Tyjiography  was  good  then,  and  has  been  so,  under  va- 
rying circumstances,  and  at  different  periods,  whenever  it 
was  practised  patiendy  by  educated  men  of  trained  taste, 
who  had  convictions  and  the  courage  of  them.  When  we 
think  of  a  Jenson  or  an  Aldine  book,  a  Pickering  or  a  Mor- 
ris edition,  a  definite  typographical  vision  passes  before  the 
eye.  All  the  greater  printers  had  a  conception  of  what  they 
wanted  to  do.  They  did  not  permit  themselves  to  be  over- 
whelmed by  trade  condidons,  by  so-called  practical  con- 
siderations, by  "good  business,"  or  the  hundred  and  one 
excuses  which  printers  make  for  being  too  ignorant,  too  un- 
imaginative, or  too  cowardly  to  do  what  the  o-lder  men  did. 
Nor  were  they  pulled  about  by  ignorant  customers  who 
wanted  first  this  type  and  then  that ;  and  by  obliging  whom 
the  work  would  have  become  merely  a  series  of  compro- 
mises. If  they  had  allowed  what  some  standardless,  unedu- 
cated printers  to-day  allow,  no  individuality  would  have 
been  left  in  their  books  to  be  remembered ! 

In  every  period  there  have  been  better  or  worse  types 
employed  in  better  or  worse  ways.  The  better  types  em- 
ployed in  better  ways  have  been  used  by  the  educated  printer 
acquainted  with  standards  and  history,  directed  by  taste  and 
a  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things,  and  facing  the  industrial  con- 
ditions and  the  needs  of  his  time.  Such  men  have  made  of 
printing  an  art.  The  poorer  types  and  methods  have  been  em- 
ployed by  printers  ignorant  of  standards  and  caring  alone 


CONCLUSION  275 

for  commercial  success.  To  these,  printing  has  been  simply 
a  trade.  The  typography  of  a  nation  has  been  good  or  bad, 
as  one  or  other  of  these  classes  had  the  supremacy.  And  to- 
day any  intelligent  i)rinter  can  educate  his  taste,  so  to  choose 
types  for  his  work,  and  so  to  use  them,  that  he  will  help 
printing  to  be  an  art  rather  than  a  trade.  There  is  not,  as 
the  sentimentalist  would  have  us  think,  a  specially  devilish 
spirit  now  abroad  that  prevents  good  work  from  being  done. 
The  old  times  were  not  so  very  good,  nor  was  human  na- 
ture then  so  dift'erent,  nor  is  the  modern  spirit  particularly 
devilish.  But  it  was,  and  is,  hard  to  hold  to  a  principle.  The 
principles  of  the  men  of  those  times  (since  they  require  noth- 
ing whatever  of  us)  seem  simple  and  glorious.  We  do  not 
dare  to  believe  that  we,  too,  can  go  and  do  likewise. 

The  outlook  for  typography  is  as  good  as  ever  it  was  — 
and  much  the  same.  Its  future  depends  largely  on  the  know- 
ledge and  taste  of  educated  men.  For  a  printer  there  are  two 
camps,  and  only  two,  to  be  in :  one,  the  camp  of  things  as 
they  are;  the  other,  that  of  things  as  they  should  be.  The 
first  camp  is  on  a  level  and  extensive  plain,  and  many  emi- 
nently respectable  persons  lead  lives  of  comfort  therein;  the 
sport  is,  however,  inferior!  The  other  camp  is  more  inter- 
esting. Though  on  an  inconvenient  hill,  it  commands  a 
wide  view  of  typography,  and  in  it  are  the  class  that  help 
on  sound  taste  in  printing,  because  they  are  willing  to 
make  sacrifices  for  it.  This  group  is  small,  accomplishes 
little  comparatively,  but  has  the  one  saving  grace  of  hon- 
est endeavour  —  it  tries.  Like  Religion,  "it  will  remain  a 
voice  crying  in  the  wilderness;  but  it  will  believe  what  it 
cries,  and  there  will  be  some  to  listen  to  it  in  the  future,  as 
there  have  been  many  in  the  past."  Around  this  camp  ideal- 
istic lunatics  hover,  but  they  are  quite  harmless,  and  were 
never  known  to  hurt  or  print  anything  seriously.  This  camp 


276  PRINTING  TYPES 

I  think  the  only  one  worth  living  in.  You  may  not  make 
all  the  money  you  want,  but  will  have  all  you  need,  and 
moreover,  you  will  have  a  tremendously  good  time;  for  as 
Stevenson  said,  "work  that  we  really  love  is  nothing  more 
than  serious  play." 

The  practice  of  typography,  if  it  be  followed  faithfully, 
is  hard  work — full  of  detail,  full  of  petty  restrictions,  full 
of  drudgery,  and  not  greatly  rewarded  as  men  now  count 
rewards.  There  are  times  when  we  need  to  bring  to  it  all  the 
history  and  art  and  feeling  that  we  can,  to  make  it  bear- 
able. But  in  the  light  of  history,  and  of  art,  and  of  know- 
ledge and  of  man's  achievement,  it  is  as  interesting  a  work 
as  exists — a  broad  and  humanizing  employment  which 
can  indeed  be  followed  merely  as  a  trade,  but  which  if  per- 
fected into  an  art,  or  even  broadened  into  a  profession,  will 
perpetually  open  new  horizons  to  our  eyes  and  new  oppor- 
tunities to  our  hands. 


THE  END 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  SPECIMENS 
AND   INDEX 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  SPECLMENS 

Described,  iUuatruted,  or  mentioned  in  these  Volumes 


1 486     Ratdolt,  jiitgsburg  (  Venice) , 

I,  77,  133 
1525      Petri,  Bcis/e,  i,  133, 134, 145 
1561      Geysslcr,  J^uremberg,  i,  134 
1567     Plantin,  Antiverfi,  i,  134,  li, 

7,  8 

1592  Typognii)hiaMcdicea,/?07«(?, 

'i,  134,  179 

1593  Van  Hout,  Leyden,  i,  134 
1595      Raphelengius,  Leyden,  i,  134 
1616     Fuhrnianii,    JVuremberif,    i, 

134,  146,  147 

1628  StaniperiaVatiaina,  Rome,  i, 

134, 166   168 

1629  Propaganda   Fide,    Rome,  i, 

134,  135 

1658     EUzevir,  Leyden,  i,  135 
1665     Nicholls,  London,  i,  135,  ii, 
94,95 

1669  Moyion,  London,  I,  \o 5, u,  9 5 

1670  Luther,  Frankfort,  i,  135 
1681     Elzevir    (Van  Dyck),    Am- 
sterdam, I,  135,  II,  19-22 

1686?    Atliias,  Amsterdam,  i,  135, 

n,  22,  23 
1693     University  Press,  Oxford,  i, 

135,  u,  95 

1695  University  Press,  Oxford,  i, 
135 

1707     Cot,  Paris,  i,  270 

1710     Pater,  Lei/isic,  i,  152 

1713  Watson,  Edinburgh,  n,  44, 
100 

1721  Endters  (Ernesti),  ATurern- 
berg,  I,  152,  153 

1732  Bortlazar  (Morales),  Valen- 
cia, II,  50-52 

1734     Caslon,  London,  ii,  103 

1 739  Breitkopf,  I^ifisic,  1,154-156 
1739?  Erhardt,  Lei/isic,  ii,  44 

1740  Luce,  Paris,  i,  246 


1742     Founiier  le  jeune,   J^aris 
(two),  I,  252 

1742  Lamcsle,  Paris,  i,  213,  270 

1743  Mozet,  Paris,  i,  268 

1744  EnscliedC-,  Haarlem,  ii,  38 

1745  Gando,  y-V/r/*,  I,  271 

1751      Lovson  &  Briquet,  Paris,  i, 
268 

1756  Foumicr  le  jeune,  Paris,  i, 

253 

1757  Briquet,  Paris,  i,  268 

1757?    Founiier  le  jeune  (?),  Paria, 
I,  252 

1757  Sanlecque,/*<3m,  1,212,213, 

266,267 
1758?  Foumier  le  jeune,  Paris,  i, 
252 

1758  Lamesle  (Gando),  Paris,  i, 

271 

1759  Trattner,  Vienna,  i,  156, 157 

1760  Gando,  y^am,  I,  271 

1 760 +  Rosart,5r«ss(?/«(?),  11,40-42 

1762  Baskei"\ille,   Birrningham 

(two),  II,  113 

1763  Caslon,  London,  ii,  104,  105 

1766     Foumier  le  jeune,  Paris,  i, 
262-265 

1766  Moore,  y?mro/,  II,  118 

1767  Foumier /f/s,  Paris  (two),  i, 

250, 251 

1 768  Ensc-hed<:-,  Haarlem,  u,  38, 39 

1769  Trattner,  Vienna,  i,  156 
1771     Bodoni,  Parma,  i,  184,  185 
1771      Espinosa,  Madrid,  ii,  80,  81 

1771  Luce,  Paris,  i,  244-246 

1772  H6rissiuit,  Paris,  i,  269 

1772  WWson,  Glasgo^v,n,  \\7 

1773  Uclacolonge,  Lyons,  i,  213, 

267,  268 
1773     Gille, /'ans,  II,  181 


280 


LIST  OF  SPECIMENS 


1777  Convento  de  S.  Joseph,  Bar- 

celona, II,  81,  82 

1778  OillC-,  Parifi,  ii,  181 

1779  Decellier,  Brussels,  ii,  42 
1782     James,  London,  ii,  102 

1782  Kodoni,  Parma,  u,  164 

1783  Wilson,  Glasgmu,  ii,  117 

1784  Ploos    van  Amstel,  ylmster- 

da?n,  II,  42 

1785  Caslon,  Z,o«(/on,  II,  119 
1785     Fry,  London,  11,118 
1785     Pien-es,  Paris,  i,  272-274 

1 785  Thomas,  Worcester  {Mass. ) , 

II,  156-158 

1786  Wilson,  Glasgmv,  ii,  117 

1787  Baine,  FAinburgh,  n,  152 
1787     Fry,  Zonrfon,  n,  120 

1787     Momoi-o,  Paris,  i,  249,  250 

1787  Real  Biblioteca,  Madrid,  ii, 

82,  83 

1788  Bodoni,   Parma    (three),  i, 

185,11,  164,  166,  167 
1789+  Herissant,  Paris,  i,  269 
1790?  Bache,  Philadel/ihia,  ii,  153 
1791     J.  de  Groot,  The  Hague,  n, 

42 

1791  ?  Unger,  Berlin,  i,  157,  158 

1792  Figgins,  London,  ii,  122 

1793  Pradell,  Madrid,  ii,  83,  84 

1794  Zatta,  Venice,  \,  186 

1795  Fry  8c  Steele,  Zon(/o72,  II,  120, 

121 
1795     Ifem  (Pradell),  Madrid,  ii, 

84,  85 

1798  Caslon,  London,  n,  121 

1799  Imprenta  Real,  Madrid,  ii, 

85,  86 

1803     Thome,  London,  n,  196 
1804?   Harmsen,  ^7?2.9?(?rc^c7??,  n,  42 
1805     Caslon,  London,  n,  196 
1806+  Leger,  Paris,  n,  183 

1807  Harris  (Martin),  Li-verfiool, 

II,  124 

1808  Gille^/«,  Paris,  ii,  181 


1808?  Gill67?/J9,  Paris,  ii,  182 

1 809     Binny  &  Ronaldson,  Philadel- 

fihia,  II,  154 
1811     Amoi-etti,  Parma,  ii,  175 

1811  Pi-adell,  Madrid,  ii,  57 

1812  Besnard,  Paris,  ii,  182 
1812     Binny  &  Ronaldson ,  Philadel- 

fihia,  II,  154,  155 

1815  Figgins,  Ijondon,  ii,  196 

1816  Fry,  London,  ii,  196 

1816     Ronaldson,  Philadel/ihia,  ii, 
155,  156 

1818  Bodoni, /Vzrma,  II,  169-171 

1819  Didot,  Paris,  ii,  178,  179 
1819     Mole,  Paris,  ii,  182 

1822  Ronaldson,  Philadelfihia,  ii, 

156 

1823  Pasteur,  Paris,  n,  183 

1824  Thorowgood,  London,  n,  196 
1828     Didot, LegrandetCie.,Pam, 

n, 196,  197 

1830  Amoretti,  Parma,  n,  175 

1831  +  Leger,  Paris,  n,  183,  184 

1832  Thorowgood, Zon(/o7z,  II,  196 

1833  Clement-Sturme,  ro/enda,  ii, 

196 
1833     W^ilson,G/c.9^OT:>,n,  193,194 

1837  Tliorowgood,  London,  n,  196 

1838  Cartallier,  Padua,  ii,  197 

1839  Fonderie  Generale,  Paris,  n, 

184 
1841     Enschede,  Haarlem,  ii,  197 

1843  Fonderie  Generale,  Pcn«,  n, 

184, 185 

1844  Qaslon,  London,  u,  196 

1845  ImprimerieRoyale,  Pans,  n, 

184 
1850     Enschedg,  Haarlem,  ii,  197 
1855     Enschede,  Haarlem,  n,  197 
1875     Claye,  Paris,  n,  186 
1 905     Musee  Plantin-Moretus,  Ant- 

wer/i,  II,  8,9 
1914     Peignot,  Paris,  u,  223,  224 
1921     Goudy,  JVcivYork,  n,  234 


INDEX 


ri^HECEDARIUM,  I,  93,  94. 

AcadCniie  des  Sciences,  i,  7,  241, 
245. 

Acad6mieFran(;aise,i,  209,  II,  2(51  n. 

Ackermann,  Rudoli)li,  ii,  191. 

Addison,  Josc]jh,  IVorks  (liaskej-- 
ville),u,  111,112;  (Tonson),135. 

Adimari,  A.,  La  Clio,  i,  168. 

Advertisements  of  books,  earliest,  i, 
63  and  n. 

Advertising  leaflet,  Caxton's,  i,  117. 

JElfredi Regis  Res  Gesttr,  ii,  91,128. 

/Eschyhis,  Oresleia,  ii,  215. 

/Esop,  Fahles.  See  Desbillons. 

Alberts,  R.  C,  ii,  36. 

Albertus  Magnus,  De  Secretia  JVa- 
turse,  I,  122. 

Albrizzi,  i,  174. 

Alcali,  II,  46. 

Aldine  italic.  See  Italic,  Aldine. 

Aldis,  H.  G.,  quoted,  ii,  15. 

Aldus  Manutius  I,  ronian  types  of,  i, 
76,  77\  the  Aldine  mark,  77\  and 
Lyons  printers,  91;  his  italic  type, 
125-131;  his  letter  to  Scipio  Car- 
teromachus,  126;  his  Greek  type, 
127, 128;  mentioned,  74, 170, 199, 
234,  II,  16,  215. 

Aldus  Manutius  II,  i,  181. 

Alexander,  \\'illiam,  Earl  of  Stirling, 
Recreations  nvith  the  Muses,  ii, 
131. 

Alexandre,  Jean,  i,  242,  244,  u,  187. 

Alloues,  11,  25 1 . 

Alpliabets,  decorative,  ii,  237,  238. 

Altihahetum  Ibericum,  i,  135. 

Altar  Book,  The,  u,  218. 

Amadis  de  G'fl?// (Cromburger) ,  ii, 
62;  (Groullcau),  80  n. 

Amadu/.zi,  C,  i,  182. 

America,  Nortli,  types  and  print- 
ing in  :  seventcentii  and  eighteentii 
centuries,  ii,  149-153;  early  nine- 
teenth centuiy,  153-158 ;  modern, 
216-218. 


America,  South,  early  printing  in, 

II,  60;  and  see  Mexico. 
American    Antiquarian    Society,  ii, 

157. 
American  point  system,  i,  33,  34. 
Ameiirun  'I'ype   Founders   Co.,    ii, 

156,  230,  231,  234. 
.■\mes,  Joseph,  quoted,  ii,  103. 
.\moretti,  Fratelli,  s])ecimens,  ii,  175 

and  72.;  types  of,  175,  176. 
Ampersand,  i,  19  and  n. 
Ampzing,  Samuel,  ^f«c/;ri/T;/w_§-e  .  .  . 

der  Slad  Haerlem,  ii,  29. 
Anacreon,  Odes,  ii,  172. 
Andilly,   Arnauld  d'.    Vies  de  Plu- 

sieurs  Saints,  etc.,   l,  209,  210; 
(Euvres  Diverses,  210. 
Andrae,  Hieronymus,  i,  140  n. 
Andi-eae,  J . ,  Baum  der  Gesi/i/ischa/t, 

1,  64. 
Andrews,  Robert,  u,  99,  103. 
Andrews,  Silvester,  ii,  99,  103. 
Angulo,  Andres  de,  n,  67. 
Anisson,  Jean,  i,  212. 
Anisson  du  Perron,  i,  184. 
Annmary  Bmwn  Memorial  Libi-aiT, 

I,  68  and  n.,  95. 
Annunzio,  Gabriele  d',  Francesca  da 

Rimini,  ii,  221. 
Antique,  eigiiteenth  centur)'  api)re- 

ciation  of  the,  ii,  160  ff. 
Antonio,    Nicolas,    Bibliotheca   His- 

paiia,  II,  56,  75. 
A])pi:ui,  Roman  History,  i, 237,  238. 
Apprentices,  disputes  over,  ii,  251. 
Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,   Commentum 

FJhicorum,  i,  107. 
Arabic  numerals,  i,  19,  ii,  229,  230 

and  n. 
Arden  Press,  ii,  216  n. 
Ariosto,  Orlando  Furioso,  i,  175. 
Armstrong,  John,   The  Art  of  F^e- 

sei~i<ing  Health,  ii,  138,  139. 
Arrighi,  Antonio,  De  Vita  .   .   .  F. 

liJauroceni,  i,  172. 


282 


INDEX 


ylrs  Moriendi,!,  118. 

Artofao,  Job.  P.,  i,  156. 

Artois,  Comte  d',  i,  216. 

Ascham,  Roger,  7^/ie  Scholemaster, 

II,  127. 
Ashbee,  C.  R.,  u,  214. 
Asbendene  Press,  ii,  213. 
Atliias,  Josepb,   specimen,  i,   135; 

buys  Elzevir  material,  ii,  22,  23 ; 

mentioned,  100. 
Atbias  foundry,  ii,  36,  37. 
Attaingnant,    Pierre,   i,    195,    196, 

213. 
Audin,  Marius,  i,  232  n.,  ii,  8  n.; 

quoted,  186. 
Augustine,  St.,  De  Civitate  Dei,  i, 

72,  II,  207. 
Augustinus  Dactus,  i,  123. 
^ureum  o/ius  regalium,  etc.,  i.  111, 

112. 
jiuteurs  Classicjues  Franqois  et  La- 
tines  (Didot),  I,  230. 
Avignon,  early  printing  at,  i,  82; 

foundry  at,  180. 
Avila.  See  Gonzalez  de  Avila. 

ijACHE,  Benjamin  Franklin,  pupil  of 
F.  A.  Didot,  I,  217;  specimen,  ii, 
153;  mentioned,  i,  274,  ii,  152. 

Bacbelier,  J.  J.,i,  223. 

Bade,  Josse,  i,  196. 

Badius  Ascensius,  Jodocus.  See  Bade, 
Josse. 

Badius,  Perrette,  i,  190,  191. 

Baemler,  Jobann,  i,  64. 

Baiardi,  Ottavio  A.,  Delle  Antichitt 
di  Ercolano,  ii,  55,  160. 

Baine,  John,  ii,  117,  152. 

Baine,  Jobn,  and  Grandson  in  Co., 
specimen,  ii,  152. 

Ballantyne,  James,  ii,  189,  200. 

Ballantyne  Press,  n,  200,  210,  211, 
216  n. 

Balzac,  Honore  de,  u,  183  and  n., 
186. 

Barber,  Mary,  Poems  on  Several  Oc- 
casions, II,  138. 


Barbier,  AndrC-,  i,  1 2 1 ,  ii,  1 83  and  n 

Barbin,  Claude,  i,  210. 

Barl)ou,Jeim  Josepb,  i,  216,  252. 

Barbou,  Joseph  Gerard,  i,  215,  216, 
222,  224,  244,  ii,  56,  263  and  n., 
264. 

Baretti,  Josepb,  quoted,  ii,  85  n. 

Barlow,  Joel,  Columbiad,  ii,  154. 

Barra,  Pablo,  u,  83. 

Bartbolomxus  Anglicus,  De  Profiri- 
etatihus  Rerum,  i,  114. 

Bartolozzi,  Francesco,  n,  147. 

Barzizi,  Gasparino,  i,  84. 

Basa,  Domenico,  i,  181. 

Baskerville,  Jobn,  ii,  107-110;  his 
ViiTjil,  111,  Addison,  111,  1 12,  Ju- 
venal and  Persius,  112  ;  bis  speci- 
mens, 113;  history  of  his  types, 
113,  114;  his  ornaments,  115  ;  his 
work  and  influence  considered, 
115,  116  ;  his  influence  on  Bodoni 
and  Didot,  159  ;  mentioned,!,  186, 
217,  219,  228,  273,  ii,  55,  56,  57, 
58,  83,  100,  104,  120,  122,  123, 
141,  142,  144  n.,  145,  186,  187, 
197. 

Basle,  sixteentli  century  printing  at, 
I,  142,  143,  144;  foundries  at, 
150,  151 ;  mentioned,  89,  90. 

Baiibloom,  Louis,  i,  199. 

Baudoin,  J.,  Les  Saintes  JVTetamor- 
fihoses,  etc.,  i,  207,  208. 

Bay  Psalm  Book,  n,  149. 

Bayer,  Perez,  De  JVumis  Hebrseo  Sa- 
7naritanis,  ii,  52,  58,  78,  79 ;  men- 
tioned, 72  and  n.,  75. 

Beaumarchais,  P.  A.  Caron  de,  buys 
Baskerville  types,  i,  228,  u,  114. 

Bebel,  J.,  i,  143. 

Belgium.  See  Netherlands. 

Bellaert,  Jacob,  i,  97. 

Bembo,  Pietro,  i,  76. 

Beneventan  writing,  i,  47. 

Bensley,  Thomas,  ii,  118,  121,  122, 
147,  148  72.,  188,  191,  198. 

Bentley,  R.,  Designs  for  Gray's 
Poems,  II,  140. 

Benton,  Linn  B.,  his  punch-cutting 


INDEX 


283 


machine,  i,    11;   "self-spacing" 
type,  34. 

Berlin,  Koyal  Foundry  at,  i,  151. 

Bernard,  Auguste,  quoted,  i,  189  n., 
2.38,  243,11,  106. 

Bemy,  Alexandre  de,  ii,  183  and  n., 
185. 

Berthelet,  Tliomas,  ii,  88,  90,  125, 
128. 

Besnanl,  Jean,  Vignettes  et  Fleurons, 
II,  182;  mentioned,  i,  275. 

Bewick,  Thomas,  II,  122, 143, 146  n. 

Bewicks,  the  (Thonias  and  John) ,  ii, 
123,  124,  145,  146,  147. 

Bey,  Jacob,  II,  151,  152. 

Bible,  the  42-line  and  36-line,  i,  61; 
(iernuu)  (Kobcrger),  64,  (Lu- 
ther's), 145,  146;  the  first  printed 
in  Fi-ance,  85;  Spanish,  105;  Im- 
primcrie  Royale,  240;  Dutch  and 
Slavic,  II,  32,  3o\  Cranmer's,  90; 
Macklin's,  121,  122,  188;  Isaiah 
Thomas's,  156;  Doves  Press,  212; 
and  see  Poljglot  Bible  and  New 
Testament. 

Bibliografihica,  il,  201. 

Biel,  Friedrich.  See  Fadrique  de  Ba- 
sUea. 

Biesta,  Laboulaye  &  Cie.,  ii,  184. 

Billetes,  Filleau  des,  i,  241  n. 

Bindoni,  F.,  i,  173  7i. 

Binny,  Archibald,  ii,  153,  154. 

Binny&Ronaldson, specimen  (1809), 
II,  153,  154;  (1812),  154,  155; 
transitional  types,  231. 

Blades,  William, quoted,  i,  3,4, 115, 
116,  118,  119  Ti.,  136,  II,  23, 
194. 

Blado,  Antonio,  i,  180. 

Blaeu  family,  printers,  of  Amster- 
dam, II,  24,  30-32. 

Blaeu's  JVovus  Mas,  ii,  30. 

Blair,  Robert,  The  Grave,  u,  188. 

Blake,  William,  II,  189. 

Blondel,  P.  J.,  Memoire  quotetl,  ii, 
258  ff. 

Bocciiccio,  (iiovanni,  Decamerone 
(heirs  of  F.  Giunta,1527),  i,  160, 


(1573),    163,  164;  (I':Uzevir),  ii, 
IH;  (Ashendene),  213. 

B<Kchi,  A.,  SymbfJicarum  Quitntio- 
num,  I,  164. 

IVnlley,  Sir  Thomas,  ii,  95  n. 

li<xloni,  (iianibattista,  his  career,  il, 
163flr.;  at  I'arma,  164,  165;  tyi)es 
designal  by,  164,  166,  167;  his 
early  mannerof  working,  171, 172; 
his  later  manner,  172,  173;  his 
two  manners  compaivd,  1 73,  1 74 ; 
his  conception  of  tiie  functions  of 
apix-ss,174,175;  specimen  of  1771 
{Fregi  e  Alajuscolc) ,  i,  184,  185, 
II,  81,  84,  164,  166;  specimens  of 
1774  and  1788,  166,  167;  Oratio 
Dominica,  168,  169;  Manua/e 
Ti/iograjico  (1788),  ii,  166, 
(1818),  I,  185,11,169-171;  Iscri- 
zioni  esotiche,  i,  185  ;  K/iitli(iUuiiia 
exoticis  tingtiis  reddita,  i,  185,  ii, 
166,  171;  Lettre  ci  te  iMurijids  de 
Cubi^res,  167,  168;  mentioned, 
I,  38,  148,  176,  177,  182,  186  and 
n.,  219,  230,  il,  55,  57,  72,  121, 
123, 159,  186,  187,  197,  203. 

Bodoni  type,  modem  version  of,  u, 
235. 

Boediius,  0/iera,  i,  160. 

Boileau  Desjjreaux,  Nicholas, 
CEuvres,  i,  221. 

Boissieu,  A.  de,  InscrifUiona  jintiquea 
de  Lyon,  ii,  185. 

Boke  of  St.  Jlbans,  The,  i,  120. 

Bologna,Francescoda,i,  76,128,129. 

Bonasone,  (i.,  i,  164. 

Bona\cntura,  St.,  i,  193. 

Bonhomme,  Pasquier,  i,  86,  87. 

Boixlazar,  Antonio,  Pkuitificacion, 
etc.,  11,50-52,  71 ;  mentionetl,58. 

Bosch,  Jan,  li,  34. 

Bossuet,  J .  B. ,  Discours  sur  /'  Histoirc 
Universelle,  i,  211. 

Ifctteri,  B.,  Orazione  Funebre,  U, 
55. 

Bouchot,  Henri,  quoted,  ii,  177. 

lioullencourt,  L.  J.,  de,  Descri/ition 
(ihu-ralede  C  Hostel  Royal  des  In- 
valides,  i,  206. 


284 


INDEX 


Boiirgoing,  Chevalier  dc,  ciuoted,  ii, 

56. 
Bowver,  William  I,  ii,  101  and  n., 

102,  115  and  n.,   134,  136,  137, 

139. 
Bowyer,  William  II,  ii,  101  n.,  137. 
Boydell,   Jolin  and  Josiah,  ii,    144, 

145,  147. 
•'  Boydell  Shakspeare,"  ii,  123, 144. 
Bradford,  William,  ii,  151. 
Bi-alie,  Tyclu),  ii,  30,  31. 
Bi-andt,  Cierard,  La  Vie  dc  ISIichcl 

dc  Ruiter,  ii,  32. 
Bi-ant,  Sebastian,  StuUiferas  JYaves, 

I,  108. 
Breda,  Jacobus  de,  i,  95. 
Brcitinger,  J.  J.,  Dichtkunst,  i,  147. 
Breitkopf,   Bemhard  C,   specimen, 

I,  154,  155,  156;  mentioned,  147, 

154,  II,  44. 
Breitkopf,  J.  G.  I.,  i,  148,  150,  155, 

262,11,  115. 
Breton,  Richard,  i,  201. 
Breves,  Savary  de,  i,  208,  238. 
Brez'iaire  de  Paris,  i,  85. 
Breviarium  Gothicum,  etc.,  ii,   55, 

56. 
Brieven  .  .  .  den  Johan  de  Witt,  u, 

33. 
Briquet  specimen,  i,  268,  269. 
British    Museum,   Facsimiles  from 

Early  Printed  Books  in  the,  i,61  //. 
Br'itish  JMuseum,  Catalogue  of  Books 

printed  in  the  XVth  Century  7io-iu 

in  the,  i,  61  n. 
Brito,  J.,  I,  97,  122. 
Brocar.  See  Guillen  de  Brocar. 
Broctes,  B.  H.,  Irdisches  Vergnilgen 

in  Gott,  I,  147. 
Brogiotti,  A.,  i,  167,  181. 
Brothers  of  the  Common  Life,  i,  95. 
Browne,  SirT.,  Works,  ii,  133. 
Bruce,  George,  i,  32,  33. 
Brun,  P.,  I,  107. 
Bude,Guillaume,  DePhilologia,  etc. , 

I,  196;   De  Transitu  Hellenismi, 

etc.,  196. 
Bulmer,  W.,    quoted,  n,  145-147; 


mentioned,   121,    123,   124,    143, 

145,  154,  189,  190,  198. 
Bulmer,  W.,  &  Co.,  ii,  144,  147. 
Burger,  K.,  Monumenta  Germanise 

et  ItaliiK  lY/Ziogra/i/iica,  i,  61  n. 
Burne-Jones,  Sir  E.,  ii,  202. 
Bumey,  Charles,  History  of  Music, 

II,  118. 
Bus,  Jan,  ii,  23,  35. 
Buyer,  Barth61emy,  i,  89. 
Bynneman,  Hemy,  ii,  128. 
Byron,  Lord,  Works,  u,  191. 

V><ADKLL,  Thomas,  ii,  142. 

Caesar,  Commentaries  (Sweynheym 
and  Pannartz),  i,  83;  (Vidoue), 
195,  198;  (Vascosan),198;  (El- 
zevir, 1635),  II,  17,  (1661),  18; 
(Tonson),135. 

Calligraphic  types,  Spanish,  ii,  86, 
87. 

Callimachus,  JVorks,ii,  143. 

Calviac,  Gilbert  de,  Civile  Honne- 
stete  fiour  les Enfants ,  etc.,  i,  201. 

Cambridge  (;Mass.),  first  press  at, 
II,  149,  150. 

Cambridge  University  Press  (Eng- 
land), ii,  96  n.,  214. 

Camusat,  Jean  and  Denise,  i,  209. 

Canones  Ajiostolorum,  i,  142. 

Capelle,Pierre,  quoted,  i,  250, 257  n. 

Cappon,  Vincent  Denys,  i,  262,269, 
273. 

Caraciircs  d' Ecriture,\i,  181,  182. 

CaractPres  de  F  Universite  (Gara- 
mond's),  i,  234  ff.,  238,  240,  n, 
234. 

Carlos  II,  II,  51. 

Carlos  III,  patron  of  Spanish  indus- 
tries and  arts,  ii,  54,  55,  77,  and 
of  Bodoni,  55,  165  ;  makes  Ibarra 
court  printer,  57;  mentioned,  52, 
53,  79,  82,  84,  160,  168. 

Carlos  IV,  II,  165. 

Carolingian  manuscripts,  I,  70. 

Carolingian  minuscule,  i,  48-51;  re- 
vived by  Humanists,  53-55. 


INDEX 


285 


Cartallier,  F.,  specimen,  ii,  197. 

"Cases,"  niodeni,  described,  i,  20- 
22,22n./  theSUmliope,  23,24n.; 
the  I^fDvre,  24;  for  foreign  lan- 
guages, 24. 
Casiri,  Miguel,  Bibliothcca  ylrahico- 
Hisfiano  Escuriatensin,  ii,  52,  71. 

Caslon,  William  I,  and  the  history  of 
Englisli  type -cutting,  ii,  100  ;  his 
origin  and  career,  101  ff.;  death, 
104;  specimen  of  1734,  103;  spe- 
cimen of  1763,  104  and  n.,  105, 
117  ;  his  types  considered,  105, 
106;  his  ornaments,  etc.,  106, 
107,  240;  his  types  copied,  118, 
119,  120;  his  "English"  roman 
first  used  in  Selden's  O/it-ra,  136, 
137;  his  types  in  North  America, 
151,157;  mentioned,  I,  20 n.,  37, 
u,  21,44,83,  110,  121,  125,236. 

Caslon,  William  II,  ii,  103,  105, 
121. 

Caslon,  William  III,  buys  Jackson's 
foundry,  u,  122;  mentioned,  105, 
and  n. 

Caslon  family,  the,  ii,  105. 

Qislon  found r)',  later  history  and 
present  ownership  of,  n,  105  and 
n.;  address  prefixed  to  specimen 
of  1785,  119;  specimen  of  1798, 
121. 

Caslon  types,  original  and  later,  com- 
pared, II,  195,  196;  revival  of 
original  in  1844,  198,  199 ;  recom- 
mended, 228. 

Castell,  Edmund,  Lexicon  Hefita- 
glotton,  II,  98. 

Castro.  See  Ciomez  de  Castro. 

Catherwood,  John  James,  ii,  105. 

Catlierwood,  Nathaniel,  ii,  105. 

Catholicon,  i,  63,  64. 

Catullus,  Odes,  in  Latin  and  Italian, 
II,  176. 

Cavalca,  D.,  Esfiejo  de  la  Cruz,  i, 
108. 

Cavellat,  (Jviillaume,  i,  200. 

Caxton,  William,  introduced  print- 
ing in  England,  i,  113;  his  life, 
113  ff.;  at  Cologne,  114;  quoted. 


114,  115;  his  press  at  Bruges, 
115;  in  I>ondon,  116;  his  types 
described,  115-118;  number  of 
books  printed  h\ ,  and  their  char- 
acteristics, 118,  119  and  n.;  his 
woodcuts  and  initials,  119;  histori- 
cal significiince  of  his  types,  120; 
books  on,  120  «.;  his  types  com- 
pared with  Continental  ones,  u,  88; 
mentioned,  i,  3,  55,  95,  97. 

Cecchi,  (iiovanni  F.,  i,  169. 

Censorship  of  books,  in  France,  ii, 
266-269;  in  the  Netherlands,  269, 
270. 

Century  Dictionary,  ii,  141. 

Ceremonies  et  Coutumes  Religieusea, 
etc.,  II,  34. 

Cen'antes,  Miguel  de,  Don  Quixote 
(Cuesta) ,  u,  49,  68  and  n.;  (Ibar- 
ra), 55,  56,  57,  7o-75\  (Chis- 
well),  133;  (Tonson),  135. 

Cesar  and  Stoll,  i,  88. 

Chamberlaine,  John,  Imitation  of 
Drawings  by  Holbein,  ii,  145. 

Chambers'  Cyclojiitdia,  quoted,  li, 
103,  117. 

Charlemagne,  revival  of  learning 
under,  i,  48  and  n.,  49,  50. 

Chatelain,  Zacharie,  ii,  34. 

Chatto  and  Windus,  ii,  215. 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  Works  (God- 
frey), u,  126;'  (Pvnson),  126; 
(Islip),  128,  129;  (Kelmscott), 
213;  Canterbury  Tales,  i,  122; 
Dives  and  Fau/ier,  122. 

Chiswick  Press,  ii,  198,  199,  201, 
204,  216,  237,  238. 

Choffard,  Pierre  Philippe,  i,  214, 
225. 

Chronicle  of  Roderigo  of  Toledo,  ii, 
66. 

Chrysostom,  St.,  JVorks  (Eton),ii, 
95  and  n. 

Cicero,  Ofiera  (Estienne,  1543),  i, 
197;  (1538-39),  198;  (Elzevir), 
u,  17,  18;  De  Oratore,  I,  72. 

Cisneros,  Cardinal.  See  Ximenez. 

Civilit6  type,  i,  131,  201,  202. 

Claeszoon  van  Balen,  Pieter,  u,  27. 


286 


INDEX 


Clarendon,   Eiirl   of,  History  of  the 

Rebellion,  ii,  133,  134. 
Clarendon  Press,  ii,  200. 
Clark,  R.  &  R.,  ii,  200,  201. 
"Classical"  types,  ii,   159  fl".,  163 

and  ti. 
Claiidin,  Anatole,  Histoire  de  r Im- 

firimerie  en  France,  etc.,  i,  83  7i., 

II,  186,  224  and  n.,  225. 
Claye,  Jules,  Ty/ies  de    Caractires, 

etc.,  specimen,  ii,  186. 
Clemen t-Stiirme,  J.  B.,  &  Co.,  spe- 
cimen, II,  196. 
Cleland,  T.  M.,n,  235. 
Cloister  Press,  u,  216  n. 
Clousier,  J.  G.,  i,  226. 
Ckitton-Brock,  A.,  quoted,  n,  208. 
Cobden-Sanderson,  T.  J.,    n,   211, 

212. 
Cochin,  Charles  Nicolas,  i,  242. 
Coci,  George,  ii,  45,  46,  61,  62,  65. 
Cockerel],  S.  C,  u,  206  n.,   213, 

216. 
Codex  Alexandrinus,  ii,  121. 
Codex  Deer etorum  (Gmtian),  i,  78. 
Coignard,  Jean  Baptiste  II,  i,  219, 

II,  261. 
Coignard,  Jean  Baptiste  III,  i,  221. 
Colines,  Simon  de,  i,  190;  his  italic 

and  Greek  fonts,  191,  197,  198; 

mentioned,  i,  198  7z.,  200,  u,  4,  9. 
Collection  des  Auteurs  Latines  (Bar- 

bou),  I,  215  andn.,  222. 
College  de  France,  origin  of,  i,  233. 
Collombat,  Jacques,    teaches    Louis 

XV   to  print,  i,  247,  248;    men- 
tioned, 269. 
Colonna,  Francesco,    Hyfinerotoma- 

chia  Polifihili  (Aldus) ,  i,  76, 199 ; 

(Baiibloom),  199. 
Colour  printing,  early  Spanish    ex- 
ample of,  II,  62. 
Columna,  Aeg.  de,  Regimento  de  Ion 

Princip.es,  i,  110. 
Commines,  Philippe  de,  iV/f;wofrd'.9,  i, 

246,  247. 
Comfiania  de  Imfiresores  y  Libreros, 

n,  53. 


Complutensian  Polyglot.  See  Polyglot 

Bible. 
Composing-room,  modern,  selection 

of  tyi)es  for,  ii,  226  flF. 
Coni/irehe7isorium,  i,  105,  107. 
Condixi,   Asauiio,  Life  of  Michel- 

agnolo  Buonarroti,  ii,  214. 
Confession   de  frire   Olivier  Mail- 
lard,  La,  I,  87. 
Congregation   of   Propag-.mda  Fide, 

catalogue  of,  i,  182;  despoiled  l)y 

the  French,  183;  after  1800,  183, 

184. 
Constable,  T.  &  A.,  ii,  200,  201, 

238. 
Copper-plates  in  book  illustrations, 

I,  147  72.;   effect  of  increasing  use 

of,  165,  166,  172. 
Cordoba.  See  Fernandez  de  Cordoba. 
Corneille,  P.,  Le  Theatre  de,i,210. 
Coster,  Laurens  Janszoon,  i,  4,  93, 

n,  29. 
"Costeriana,"  i,  59,  93. 
Cot,  Jean,  i,  269. 
Cot,  Pierre,  specimen,  i,  270. 
Cottrell,  Thomas,  ii,  104,  122,  196. 
Cours  des  Princi/iaux  Fleuves,  etc., 

I,  247. 
Courses  de   Testes  et  de  Bague,  i, 

206. 
Cousin,  Jehan,  Livre  de  Perspective, 

I,  202  and  n. 
Cramoisy,  Sebastien,   i,   206,   207, 

211,  239. 
Crane,  Walter,  quoted,  i,  70, 147 n., 

165. 
Crapelet,  G.  A., quoted,  i,  248. 
Cratander,  Andreas,  i,  143. 
Cromburger,  Jacob,  ii,  59,  62,  67. 
Cromburger,  Johann,  u,  60. 
Croniques  de  France,  i,  87. 
Cuesta,  Juan  de  la,  u,  68. 
Cuivres  de  Cochin,  etc.,  i,  242,  243. 
Cunningham,  W.,  Cosmografihicall 

Glasse,  ii,  91,  126. 
Cupi,  W.,  II,  100. 
Curio,  Valentinus,  i,  143. 
Curwen  Press,  u,  216  72. 


INDEX 


287 


LyANFRiK,  Philippe,  I,  201. 
Daniel,  C.  H.  O.,  private  press,  ii, 

200  and  n. 
Daniel,  Roger,  ii,  131. 
Dante,  Alighieri,  Divina  Commedia 

(Marcolini),!,  160, 161;   (Sessa), 

162,    163;     (Zatta),    174,    175; 

(Asliendene) ,  ii,  213  ;  Purgatorio 

(Aldus),  I,   12y;  Inferno   (Ash- 

endene),  ii,  213. 
Dauvillier,  Hubert,  ii,  94. 
David,  Christoplie  II,  ii,  263  and  n. 
David,  Jacques  Louis,  ii,  161. 
Day,  John,   ii,  27,  90-92,  98,  99, 

126,  127,128,  132,  149. 
Daye,  Stephen,  u,  149. 
DeVinne,  T.  L.,  i,  5,  18,  33,  77n., 

II,  21,  22,  104n.,  135«.,  24271. 
Decellier,  Madame,  ii,  42  and  n. 
Decker,  Georg  Jacob,  i,  148. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  set  in 

Caslon,  II,  151. 
Delacolonge  foundry  (Lvons),  speci- 
men, I,  213,  267,  268. 
Delbene,    A.,    Civitas     Veri     sive 

A/orum,  i,  206. 
Desbillons,  F.  J.,  Fabularum  jEso- 

fiiarum,  i,  222. 
"  Descenders,"  i,  35-37. 
Dfsrri/ition  des  Fetes  donnees  fiar  la 

Ville  de  Paris,  i,  213. 
Deviliers,  Nicolas,  i,  250. 
Diary  of  Lady  IVilloug-My  (1844), 

II,  199. 
Dibdin,  Thomas  F .  ,Bibliot/ieca  S/ien- 

ceriana,  ii,  190;  Bibliografihical 

Decameron,  190;  Ty/iogra/ihical 

Anti(juities  of  Great  Britain,  190; 

quoted  or  mentioned,  91,  106,124, 

144  n.,  148  n.,  188,  191. 
Diccionario  de  la  lengua  Castellana, 

II,  70  and  n.,  71. 
Dictes  or  Sayengis  of  the  Philoso- 

/i/ires,  The,  i,  116. 
Dictionaries,  methods  of  printing,  ii, 

140, 141. 
Didot,  .\nibroise  Firmin,  i,  189  n., 

218,  11,  180,  184. 


Didot,  Denis,  i,  216. 

Didot,  F^icie,  i,  218. 

Didot,  Firmin,  i,217,  218;  interested 
in  stereotyping,  218  ;  translator  of 
Virgil,  218;  his  sons,  218;  men- 
tioned, 157,  158,  186,  225,  226, 
227,  230,  u,  177,  179, 180,  184. 

Didot,  Fran^xjis,  i,  216,  221. 

Didot,  Fi"an(;ois  .\mbroise,  Paine:  his 
point  system,  i  ,  31,  32,  217;  his 
types  cut  by  W'aflard,  216;  his 
collection  of  French  classics,  216; 
introduces //w/i/>r  x'e//«,  217;  his 
sons,  217;  influence  of,  on  Dutch 
printing  in  eigliteenth  centur)-,  ii, 
43;  Baskervillc's influence  on,  159  ; 
quoted,  175;  mentioned,  i,  38, 
148,  218,  226,  227,  228,  II,  55, 
57,  176,  178. 

Didot,  Henri,  i,  218. 

Didot,  Hyacinthe,  i,  218. 

Didot,  L<:-ger,  i,  218, 

Didot,  Piei-re,  Paine:  his  editions  du 
Louvre,  i,  217  and  n.;  heads  neo- 
classic  movement^  in  printing,  2 1 7, 
218,  230,  231 ;  Efiitre  sur  les  Pro- 
grhs  de  rim/iritnerie,  218,  226, 
227,  II,  56,  57;  Essai  de  Fables 
nouvelles,  etc.,  i,  227,  li,  176; 
specimen  of  1819,  178,  179;  men- 
tioned, I,  228,  230,  II,  121,  123, 
176  n.,  177,  178,  182,  186,  187. 

Didot,  Pierre  Francois,  i,  216,  218, 
228. 

Didot  le  jeune,  son  of  Pierre  Fran- 
cois, I,  218,  229. 

Didot,  Legrand  et  Cie.,  specimen,  ii, 
196. 

Didot  family,  history  of,  i,  216-219 ; 
and  the  develojiment  of  nineteenth 
century  types,  ii,  176  ff.,  197. 

Didot  foundry,  types  of,  sold  to  Fon- 
derie  GC'nerale,  ii,  184. 

Didot  types  and  derivatives,  books 
printed  in,  ii,  179,  180;  influence 
of,  in  France,  186;  mentionetl, 
177,  178,  187. 

Doctrina  Christiana  en  la  lengua 
Mejcicana  e  Castellana,  ii,  60. 


288 


INDEX 


Doctrinal  of  Sa/iience,  The,  i,  118. 

Dodoens,  Rembert,  Scir/iium  Hiato- 
ria,  II,  13,  14. 

Dolct,  Etienne,  li,  257. 

Dollar-marks  first  made  in  type,  ii, 
153. 

"Domesday"  character,  ii,  121, 
122. 

Donatus,  /Ellius,  i,  72,  93,  94. 

Dorat,  Claude  Josepli,  Fables  JVou- 
velleSy  I,  224;  I^es  Baisers,  224; 
Lcttres  en  Vers,  etc.,  229. 

Doves  Press,  ii,  211,  212. 

Drouart,  Ambrose  and  Jerome  i, 
206. 

Drue kschrif ten  des  XV  bis  XVIJI 
Jahrhunderts,  i,  62  n. 

Dudley,  Rotiert,  Dell'  Jrcano  del 
Alare,  i,  166. 

Duff,  Gordon,  Early  English  Print- 
ing, I,  55  n.;  quoted,  118,  119, 
120,121. 

Durandus,  G.,  i,  63,  65. 

Diirer,  Albert,  i,  194  and  n. 

Dutch  school  of  printing,  i,  3 ;  and  see 
Netherlands. 

Dutch  types,  in  England, i,  25,  ii,  43, 
44,  99, 100;  in  Vienna, i,  156  ;  ver- 
nacular, u,  8  ;  in  Germany,  44. 

Dwiggins,  W.  A.,  quoted,  n,  106, 
107. 

JiLguia,  Miguel  de,  n,  67. 

"Egyptian"  types,  n,  195  n. 

Eisen,  Charles,  i,  214,  224,  259. 

Eliot,  John,  Indian  Bible,  ii,  149. 

EUstolj ,  Elizabeth ,  ^4n  English-  Saxon 
Homily,  etc.,  ii,  134,  135  and  n.; 
Anglo-Saxon  Grammar,  135  n. 

"Elzevier"  tvpe,  modern,  ii,  185, 
232. 

Elzevir,  Abraham,  ii,  15. 

Elzevir,  Bonaventure,  ii,  15. 

Elzevir,  Daniel,  u,  18,  19,  22,  23. 

Ellzevir,  widow  of  Daniel,  letter  of,  to 
wife  of  Moretus,  ii,  19,  20;  speci- 
men, 20  and  n.,  21. 


Elzevir,  Louis,  i,  22  n.,  n,  15, 19. 

FJzevir  books,  i,  37,  ii,  15;  in  32mo, 
17,  18;  in  octavo,  18;  in  folio,  18, 
19. 

Elzevir  family,  history  of,  ii,  15  ff. ; 
mentioned  generally,  i,  150  ?;., 
238,  239,  11,99. 

Elzevir  foundr)',  later  history  of,  ii, 
22,  23. 

Elzevir  specimen-sheets  (1658  and 
1681),  I,  135,  (1681),  II,  20,  21. 

Emblems  in  specimen-books  con- 
sidered, I,  274-276. 

Endters  family,  i,  153. 

England,  types  and  printing  in  :  fif- 
teenth century,  I,  113-124;  from 
1500  to  1800,  II,  88-148;  from 
1800  to  1844,  188-197;  revival 
of  Caslon  (1844)  and  Fell  (1877) 
types,  198-201;  revival  of  early 
type-forms  and  their  modern  use, 
202-216. 

English  law-books,  ii,  137. 

Enschede,  Ch.,  Fonder ies  de  Carac- 
th'es  dans  Ies  Fays-Bas,  etc.,  i, 
98  n.,  II,  39;  quoted,  i,  150n.,n, 
42,  43. 

Enschede,  Isaac,  ii,  36. 

Ejischede,  Johannes,  i,  98,  n,  23,  34, 
36,38. 

Enschede  foundry  (Haarlem) ,  n,  37 ; 
specimens,  38-40,  197. 

Episcopius,  Nicolaus,  i,  143. 

Ei-agny  Press,  ii,  213. 

Erasmus,  Desiderius,  i,  143;  his 
Greek  translation  of  New  Testa- 
ment (Froben,  1516),  143,  Latin, 
(l52l),  144;  Antiharbarorum, 
144;  La  Civilite  Puerile,  etc.  ,201. 

Erliardt,  Hr.,  i,  150,  156,  ii,  44. 

Emesti,  J.  H.  G.,  specimens,  i,  152, 
153. 

Es])inosa,  Antonio,  specimen,  u,  80, 
81. 

Essex  House  Press,  n,  214. 

Estienne,  Charles,  De  Dissectione 
Parlium  Cor/ioris  Humani,  i,  191 ; 
mentioned,  237. 


INDEX 


289 


Estienne,  Henri,  I,  190,  192. 
Estiennc,  Robert,  i,  190,  191,  196, 

197,    198,   204,   205,   233,   235, 

236,  237. 
Euclid,  Elements,  ii,  126,  127. 
Eusebius,   l^nfiaralio   Kvangelica, 

I,  237,  238;  mentioned,  73. 
Evelyn,  John,  quotetl,  i,  209,  239, 

240,  II,  16  and  n.,  30. 

Fadriquk  de  Basilea,  i,  106,  107, 

108,  111,  II,  61. 
Fann  Street  Foundry,  ii,  121. 
Fell,  Dr.  John,  types  imported  by, 

II,  95,  96  and  7i.,  97;  mentioned, 
44. 

"  Fell "  types,  nuxlernuseof,  ii,  200; 

ornaments,  238. 
F^nelon,  Francois  de  S.  de  la  Mothe-, 

(Euvres,   i,    228  ;  .4ve7itures  de 

Tclhnacjue,  228. 
FenoUar,  B.,  Ohres  e  Trobes,  i,  105. 
Fenzo,  Modesto,  i,  173. 
Ferdinand,  Duke  of  Parma,  and  Bo- 

doni,  II,  164,  165,  168,  171 ;  men- 
tioned, 55. 
Femandez  de  Cordoba,   Alonso,  i, 

105. 
Femel,  Jean,  Monalosfihaerium  and 

Cofinio  T/ieoria,  i,  197. 
Fertcl,  Martin,  Science  Pratique  de 

ri/n/irimerie,  i,  26,  260  n. 
Feyei"il)end,  Sigmund,  Thurnier 

Buch,  I,  140,  141. 
Fichet,  G.,  i,  83,  84,  188,  n,  248. 
Fifield,  A.,  ii,  98. 
Fifteen  Oes,  i,  121. 
Figgins,  Vincent,  specimens,  u,  122, 

194  n.,  196,  236. 
Fine,  Oronce,  De  Rebus  Mat/iemati- 

cis,  etc.,  I,  200;  mentioned,  198. 
Firmin-Didot,  house  of,  i,  218. 
Flaxman,  John,  illustrations  to  tlie 

Iliad,  u,  161. 
Fleischman,  J.  M.,ii,  23,  34,  36,  37, 

38,  39,  40,  41,  43. 
Fliscus,  (irammatica,  i,107. 


Horets,  ll,  238  AT. 

Florio,  Jolin,  J\fe^v  IVorld  of  Words, 
II,  141. 

Focard,  Jacques,  Parafihrase  de 
r Astrolabe,  i,  199. 

Fonderie  (iCnC-rale,  Paris,  specimen, 
II,  184,  185. 

Fonderie  Mayeur,  ii,  186,  232,  237. 

Font  of  ty])e,  numerous  characters 
in,  I,  8;  standard,  16,  17;  classes 
of  characters  in,  18. 

Fontenai,  AbbC*  de,  quoted,  ii,  16, 
108, 109. 

Fontenellc,  Bernard  le  B.  de, 
(Euvrcs  Diverses,  ii,  34. 

Ford,  Richard,  quoted,  i,  104,  ii,  73, 
85. 

Foulis,  Andrew,  i,  186,  230,  ii,  117, 
118,  122,  123,  142,  143,  193. 

Foulis,  Robert,  i,  186,  230,  n,  117, 
118,  122,  123,  142,  143,  193. 

Fournier,  Antoine,  l,  254,  256. 

Foumier,  Francois,  i,  248  and  n. 

Fournier,  Jean  Claude,  and  his  chil- 
dren, I,  205,  248. 

Fournier,  Jean  Francois, 7?/«,  i,  249; 
specimens,  250  and  n.,  251. 

Founiier,  Jean  Pierre,  Paine:  his 
foundi-y,  i,  248;  marries  Charlotte 
Pichault,  249;  his  daughters,  250, 
251;  mentioned,  205,  257,  262, 
266,  273. 

Fournier,  Pierre  Simon,  lejeune:  his 
point  system,  i,  26  ff.,  32,  217, 
252;  his  career,  251  ff.;  Manuel 
Tyfiogra/ihique  ( 1 764,  1 766) , 
252,  260 and n.,  261  ff., II,  8 1,1 71, 
240;  specimen-books,  i,  252  and 
n.,  254,  262-264;  other  works 
of,  253;  his  marriage,  253;  his 
houses  in  Paris,  253,  254  and  n.; 
death  and  eloge  of,  254,  255  and 
n.;  his  widow  carries  on  foundry, 
256  ;  his  types  described,  257  ff.; 
type  oniaments,  264,  265;  special 
characters,  265  ;  quoted,  I,  28- 
31, 149-151,  155,  156,  179,  180, 
204,  205,  207,  215,216,  241  n., 
243,  255,  261,  262,  263,  267,  u. 


290 


INDEX 


35,  36,  53,  103,  104,  108;  men- 
tioned, 1, 148,  184,  185,  186,  216, 

221,  222,  223, 2'J4,  225,  227,  250, 
2ri,  273,  274,  ii,  5,  37,  41,  43, 
44,83,  84,  153  and  ?t.,  164. 
Foil micr,  Simon  Pierre,  son  of  Pierre 
Simon  (/f  jcuue),  i,  256;  men- 
tioned, 251,  254,  257  and  n.,  ii, 
152  and  n.,  153. 

Fonrnier  family,  import;uice  of,  in 
liistory  of  French  tyjje-founding,  i, 
257;  genealogical  table  of,  258. 

Fox,  Justus,  II,  151. 

Foxe,  John,  Book  of  Martyrs,  ii,  92. 

Fraktur  type,  i,  62,  139  ff.,  145, 
146,  148,  149,  150,  153,  155, 
156,  157. 

France,  types  and  printing  in:  fif- 
teenth century,  i,  82-92;  from 
1500  to  1 800,188-276;  theDidots, 
II,  176-180;  nineteenth  century 
foundries  and  specimens,  181-1 87; 
modem,  222-225. 

Francis  de  Sales,  St.,  Introduction  d 
la  Fie  devote,  i,  240. 

Francois  I,  reign  of,  i,  189,  190; 
mentioned,  195,  233,  234,  238. 

Francour,  Jean  de,  i,  101. 

Frankfort-on-the-Main,  foundries  at, 
I,  150. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  and  the  Four- 
niers,  i,  257  and  n.;  quoted,  ii,  56, 
57,  150,  151;  letters  to  Bodoni, 
167,  168;  mentioned,  i,  59,  217, 
267,  273,274,11,  99  n.,  Ill,  113, 
114  and  7Z.,  139,  153,  156,  165. 

Franklin,  James,  ii,  150. 

Freart,  Roland,  ParaW^le  de  f  Archi- 
tecture Antique  et  de  la  Moderne, 
I,  209. 

Frederick  the  Great,  i,  148,  151. 

Freiburger,  iM.,  i,  83,  85. 

French  books  published  in  Nether- 
lands, II,  34,  35. 

French  and  Italian  printing  con- 
trasted, I,  198,  199. 

French  Old  Style,  ii,  232. 

French  printing-offices,  eiirly,  u, 
251,  252. 


French  Script,  n,  236. 

French  types  imitated  in  Germany, 

I,  148. 
Freylinghausen,  J.  A.,  An  Ahatract 

of  the  Whole  Doctrine, *i\.z.,  ii,  189, 

190. 
Frisius,  Ciemma,  I.es  I^-inciJies 

d' Astronomic,  etc.,  i,  200. 
Froben,  Johann,  i,  143,  144,  ii,  66, 

89. 
Froschauer,    Chiystoph,    Kunstrich 

Buch,  I,  142. 
Fry,    Edmund,    Pantot^rajihia,    u, 

120. 
Fry,  Edmund,  &  Co.,  specimen  of 

1787,  II,  120,  121;  of  1816,  196. 
Fr>',  Heniy,  ii,  120. 
Fry,  Joseph,  ii,  118,  120. 
Fry,  J.,  &  Co.,  specimen,  ii,  118, 

119,^121. 
Fry  and  Kammerer,  u,  154. 
Fry  and  Pine,  ii,  118. 
Fryand  Steele  specimen,  n,  120, 121. 
Fr>^'s  Type  Street  Letter  Foundry, 

II,  121. 
Fuchs,  Leonard,  De  Historia   Stir- 

fiium,  I,  144,  145. 
Fuhrmann,  G.  L.,  specimen,  i,  134, 

146,  147. 
Fuller,  Tliomas,  quoted,  ii,  4;  Holy 

and  Prof ane  State,  131. 
Fundamentbuch,  i,  141. 
Fust,  Johann,  and  Schoeffer,  Peter,  i, 

61,  62,66,  71,  82. 

vJABRiEL  Antonio  de  Borbon,  Don, 

translation  of  Sallust,  n,  56,  58, 

59,  71,  7o. 
Gaguin,  Robert,  i,  84,  195. 
Gallner,  type-cutter,  i,  151. 
Game  and  Playe  of  the  Chesse,  The, 

I,  115. 
Gando,  Francois,  le  jeune,  i,  249, 

271. 
Gando,  Jean  Louis,  i,  271. 
Gando,  Nicholas,  raine,  specimen,  i, 

271,  272,  273. 


INDEX 


291 


Garamond,  Claude,  i,  234  ;  his  car- 
acteres  tie  r  L/niverailt,  234,  235, 
240;  his  g-recs  du  roi,  236-238; 
his  types  now  in  collection  of  Ini- 
prinierie  Niitionale,  238;  revived 
use  of  his  types,  ii,  224,  225  ;  n)en- 
tioned,  i,  191,  205,  207,243,  245, 
249,  259,  268,  ii,  4,  6,  7,  22,  36, 
177,  187. 

Gamier,  J.  B.,i,  220. 

Gas/iarini  Kfiistolu',  i,  83,  84. 

Gas/tarini  Ort/ioifra/i/iia,  i,  84. 

Gast,  Matthew,  u,  48,  49. 

Getl,  \\'illiani,  ii,  99  n. 

General  Councils,  Acts  of,  i,  240. 

Geographiail  works,  Dutch,  ii,  23, 
24,  29,  30. 

Geoi-ge  III,  II,  147  n. 

Gering,  Ulrich,  i,  83,  85,  86. 

Gering  ;uid  Renibolt,  i,  191. 

German  printers  in  Spain,  i,  99,  103. 

Germany,  types  and  printing  in: 
fifteenth  century,  i,  58-69;  from 
1500  to  1800,  139-158;  modem, 
u,  219-221. 

Gessner,  Christian  F.,  Buchdrucker- 
kunst  und  Schriftgiessercy,!,  154, 
II,  44. 

Geyssler,Valentine,  specimen,  1, 134. 

Gil,  Geronimo,  ii,  74,  82,  83,  86. 

Gille,  J.,  specimen,  ii,  181  n.;  men- 
tioned, i,  148,  273. 

Gille,  J.  G.,Ji/s,  specimen,  ii,  181, 
183. 

Giunta,  Filijjpo  di,  i,  160. 

Giunta,  Luc  Antonio  di,  i,  160. 

Giunti,  the,  i,  130. 

Glover,  Joseph,  ii,  149. 

Godfrey,  'Diomas,  ii,  126. 

Godfrey  of  Boloyne,  i,  1 1 7,  ii,  131. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  Faust,  i,  149; 
IVilhelm  Meister,  149;  mentioned, 
154, 155. 

Golden  Legend,  The,  i,  120. 

Goldoni,  Carlo,  Ofiere  Teatrale,  i, 
175. 

Goldsmith  and  Parnell,  Poems  by,  ii, 
123, 124. 


CJoltz  (Goltzius) ,  Hubert,  O/iera,  ii, 
52;  Fh'if  Omnium  fere  Imfiera- 
torum  Imagines,  27;  C.  Julius 
Cusar,  etc.,  28. 

(ionic/,  de  Castro,  .\lvar,  De  Rebus 
Gestis  a  Francisco  Ximenio,  li,  67, 
79. 

Gonzalez  de  Avila,  (i.,  Teatro  de  las 
Grundezas  de  .  .  .  Madrid,  ii,  69. 

Goodhue,  Hertram  G.,  ii,  217,  234. 

(iorgonzola,  Nicolas,  I,  159. 

Cioschen,  Georg  Joachim,  i,  149. 

Ciottsched,  J.  C,  Critischer  Dicht- 
kunst,  I,  147. 

Goudy,  Frederic  W.,  u,  234,  235; 
specimen,  234  n. 

Gourmont,  Gilles  do,  i,  236  n. 

Ciower,  John,  Confessio  Amantis,  n, 
125, 126. 

(irafton,  Richard,  ii,  90,  129  n. 

(irandjean  de  Fouchy,  Philippe:  his 
romain  du  roi,  i,  241  and  n.,  242, 
243,  244,  II,  159,  187,  225;  his 
form  of  serif,  159;  revived  use  of 
his  types,  224;  mentioned,  i,  7, 
254,  259,  264,  271,  ii,  186,  197. 

Granjon,  Robert,  civilite  types,  i, 
201,  202;  italic,  203,  204;  men- 
tioned, 131,167,  179  and  n.,  181, 
249,  250,  n,  4,  5,  7,  8  and  n.,  41. 

Gi-a])heus,  J.,  n,  27.  • 

(inive,  Nicolas  de,  u,  26. 

(iray,  'lliomas.  Six  Poems  (Do<ls- 
ley),  II,  140;  Poems  (Foulis),  143; 
quoted,  88;  mentioned,  165. 

Grecs  du  roi.  See  (iaramond. 

Greek,  mss.,  Aldus's  imitation  of,  i, 
127,  128  and  n. 

Greek  Testament,  i,  240. 

(ireek  tyi)es,  De  Colines',  i,  191; 
Gai-amond's,  236-238  ;  "  Royal," 
238  (and  see  Silver  Ixtter) ;  in 
Complutensian  Polyglot,  ii,  46; 
Hil)bert's,  192;  Image's,  215; 
Proctor's,  215.  216  and  n. 

Green,  Samuel,  ii,  149,  150. 

(Irifii,  Francesco,  i,  76,  128,  129. 

(irismand,  J.,  il,  98. 


292 


INDEX 


Groot,  J.  de,  si)ccimcn,  ii,  42. 

Groppo,  Antonio,  i,  174. 

GrouUcau,  Ksticnne,  i,  200,  ii,  80  n. 

Grovcr,  James,  ii,  99,  103. 

Grover,  Thomas,  ii,  99. 

Gnpliius,  J.,  I,  162. 

Gryphius,  Sel)astian,  i,  204. 

Guerin,  Maurice  de,  Le  Centaur,  ii, 
217. 

Gu6rin  (H.L.)  andDelatour  (L.F.) , 
I,  214,  271. 

(Juicciardini,  L.,  Descrittione  di  Tutti 
iFaesi Bassi,  ii,  28;  mentioned,  13. 

Guillen  de  Brocar,  Aniald,  i,  106, 
108,  u,  46,  47,  65. 

Gumiel,  Diego  de,  i.  111. 

Gutenberg,  Jolumnes,  perfected  in- 
vention of  movable  types,  i,  3,  4, 
5  ;  mentioned,  61,  63,  84,  90. 

Guyot,  Fi-an^,ois,  ii,  4,  5,  49. 

Guzman,  Perez  de,  Cronica  de  Don 
Juan  II  (Brocar),  ii,  47,  65; 
(Monfort),58,  77,  78. 

JriAAS,  Wilhelm,  i,  151. 

Hacon,  W.  L.,  ii,  211. 

Haebler,  Koni-ad,  Tyfiografihie 
Iberique  du  Quinzihne  SiH/e,  i, 
102  n.;  Early  Printers  of  S/iain 
andPortugal,  102  n.;  quoted,  99, 
100-102,  II,  45,  47,  61,  62,  65; 
mentioned,  i,  106,  107. 

Haener,  Henri,  i,  251,  267. 

Hagenbach,  Peter,  i,  109,  ii,  45,  61. 

Hall,  F.  W. , quoted,  i,  49,  50,  53  n. 

Han,  Ulrich,  i,  72,  79. 

Hanmer,  Sir  Thomas,  his  edition  of 
Shakespeare,  ii,  139. 

Hansard, Thomas C, quoted,  n,  195, 
196. 

Hansy,  Honore  T.  de,  i,  273. 

Harmsen  &  Co.,  n,  42. 

Harper,  Thomas,  ii,  131. 

Hart,  Horace,  ii,  97n. 

Harvard  College,  and  the  first  Colo- 
nial press,  II,  149,  150 ;  types 
given  to,  by  Hollis,  150  and  n. 


Hatfield,  Arnold,  II,  131. 

Hautin,  Pierre,  i,  195,  213,  250, 
II,  4. 

Hawkins  (Rush  C.)  Collection,  i,  68 
and  n.,  95. 

Hebrew  types,  Le  Be's,  i,  204,  205. 

"  Heiglit- to-paper,"  i,  34  n. 

Hele,  Geoi'ges  de  la,  Masses,  ii,  5, 
9,  13. 

Helvetiorum  Res/iublica,  ii,  16. 

Hemery,  J.  d',  ii,  267. 

Henric  of  Delft,  i,  97,  98. 

Hentzsken,  Michael,  i,  142. 

Herbort,  J.,  Jenson's  successor,!,  74. 

Herculaneuni  and  Pompeii,  effect  of 
discovery  of,  on  design,  n,  160. 

Herder,  J.  G.  von.  Brief e,  i,  148. 

Herissant,  Jean  T.,  i,  262,  269. 

Herissant,  Marie  N.  (Estienne) ,  spe- 
cimen, I,  269. 

Hewitt,  Graily,  ii,  213. 

Heynlin,  Johann,i,  83,  84, 89;  n,248. 

Hibbert,  Julian,  Book  of  the  Orphic 
Hymns,  ii,  192  and  n. 

Hispanic    Society  of    America,  ii, 

68   72. 

Historia  von  D.  Johann  Fausten,  i, 

146. 
History  of  the  River  Thames,  n,  147. 
Hobby  Horse,  The  Century  Guild,  u, 

201. 
Holland,     Philemon,    translation    of 

Pliny,  u,  130. 
Holland.  See  Netherlands. 
Holle,  L.,  I,  66. 

Holhs,  Thomas,  II,  101  n.,150  andn. 
Holtrop,  J.  W.,  Alonuments  Ty/io- 

graphic/ues  des  Pays-Bas,  i,  93 

and  n.,  94. 
Holyoke,  Edward,  quoted,  ii,  101  n. 
Homer,  Iliad  and  Odyssey  (Foulis), 

n,  1 1 7, 143  ;  Iliad  (Bowyer) ,  136. 
Hondius,  H.,  ii,  29. 
Hondius,  J.,  ii,  24,  28,  29,  30. 
Hongre,  Pierre,  i,  90. 
Hooft,    Pieter   C,     JVederlandsche 

Historien,  ii,  32. 


INDEX 


293 


Horace,  Ofiera  (Miscomini),  i,  80; 

{edition   du   Louvre),  217,  231; 

(Iniprimeric  Kovale)  ,240;  (Pine) , 

II,  137,  138  ;  (Koulis),  143  ;  (Di- 

dot) ,  1 63  «. ,  1 78  ;  Odes  arid  Kfii.s- 

tles,  I,  197. 
Hor;r  ad  usum  Sarum  (Caxton),  i, 

117;  (Pvnson),  123;  (Notary  and 

Barl)ierj,  121,  122. 
Horap  BcatfE  Virginis  ad  usum  Pari- 

sienscm,  i,  191. 
Ilornian,  W.,  Vutgaria,  ii,  89,  125. 
Honiby,  C.  H.  St.  John,  ii,  213. 
Hoi-ne,    Herbert    P.,  The    Century 

Gitild  Hobby  Horse,  ii,  201 ;  types 

designed  by,  214. 
Hostingue,  printer  at  Rouen,  ii,  89  n. 
Hours,  Books  of,  i,  88 ;  and  see  Ho- 
rse. 
Hours  of  work,  ii,  270,  271. 
Housman,  Laurence,  n,  238. 
Hugo,  Obsidio  Bredana,  ii,  14. 
Humanistic  Mss.,  and  Italian  roman 

types,  I,  70. 
Humanistic  writing,  a  revival  of  Car- 

olingian  minuscule,  i,  53  and  n., 

54,  55;  results  of  its  adoption,  56. 
Humanists'  Library,  The,  ii,  215. 
Hume,  David,  History  of  England, 

II,  188. 
Hurio,  Francesco  del,  ii,  70. 
Hurus,  Juan,  i,  106. 
Hums,  Pablo,  i,  104,  106,  107,  108, 

109,  110. 
Hurus  printing-house,  ii,  45,  46. 
Husz,  Martin,  i,  89. 
Husz,  Matthieu,  i,  91. 
Hutten,  Ulrich,  De   Unitate   Eccle- 

siff  Conserxianda,  i,  142. 
Hutz  and  Sanz,  i,  110. 
Hij/merotomachia  Poli/ihili.  See  Co- 

lonna. 

1,  CAPITAL,  originally  represented  J 
also,  I,  22  and  n.,  23,  ii,  236. 

Ibarra,  Joachin,  his  career,  ii,  54 
flF.;  court  printer,  55,  57;  books 
printed  by,  55,  56,  71-75;  rival ly 


between  Didot  and,  55,  56;  liis 
death,  57;  his  office  carried  on  by 
hiswidowand  sons,  59  ;  mentioned, 
I,  177,  186,  219,  n,  53,  82. 

Iciar,  Juan  de,  i,  110  and  n. 

Ideograms,  I,  40  and  n. 

Ifem,  Pedro,  si)ecimen,  ii,  84,  85. 

II  Fi-ancia.  See  Kaibolini. 

Image,  Sehvyn,  ii,  215. 

Imjjrcnta  Real,  ii,  79 ;  specimen,  85, 
K6;  mentioned,  59,  69. 

Impressao  Regio  (Lisbon),  ii,  54  n. 

Imprimerie  Nationale,  and  (iara- 
mond's  types,  i,  238;  "historical 
types"  of,  II,  186;  comparative 
table  of,  186,  187;  and  see  next 
entry. 

Imprimerie  Royale,  founded,  i,  238 
ff.;  first  books  printed  at,  240, 
241  ;GrandjeiUi's  types (rc//7/o//2  du 
ro/)  cast  for,  241,242,  243;  Luce's 
types  and  omaments  bought  for, 
245,  246;  aided  by  royal  subven- 
tions, 246,  247  ;  productions  of, 
248  n.;  specimen,  ii,  184;  men- 
tioned, I,  212,  II,  179;  and  see 
Garamond. 

Index  Exfmrgatorius,  i,  180. 

Initial  lettei-s,  calligraphic,  in  early 
French  books,  i,  87,  88,  91;  en- 
gi*a\ed,  in  early  Spanish  books, 
100,  111;  selection  of,  for  modem 
composing-room,  n,  237. 

Irish  type,  ii,  95  n. 

Islip,  Adam,  n,  128,  130. 

Italian  art,  influence  of,  in  France,  i, 
190. 

Italian  cursive  handwriting,  and  italic 
tj'pe,  I,  125,  128,  129. 

"  Italian  letter  "  (roman), ii,  89,  91. 

Italic,  Aldine,  i,  125  ff.;  reasons  for 
invention  of,  126,  127,  128;  based 
on  Italian  cursive  hand,  128,  129; 
model  for  all  later  italic  tj-jjes, 
129  ;  different  names  of,  129; 
counteifeitedat  Lyons,  where  italic 
capitals  were  first  added,  130. 

Italy,  types  and  printing  in  :  fiftt.enth 
century,  i,  70-81  ;    Aldine  italic, 


294 


INDEX 


125-132;  from  1500  to  1800, 1.59 - 
187;  Bocloni,  n,  163-175;  mod- 
em, 221,  222. 

J ,  CAPITAL,  I  used  for,  in  early  times, 
I,  22,  23,  II,  236;  differentiated 
from  I,  I,  22  n.;  lower-case,  dif- 
ferentiated from  i,  22  n.,  23. 

Jacobi,  J.  Cr.,  Iris,  i,  148. 

Jackson,  Joseph:  his  "peculiar" 
fonts,  n,  121  ;  his  fovuidry  sold 
to  Caslon,  122;  mentioned,  104, 
105  71. 

Jacquem in,  type-cutter,  II,  179,  184. 

Jacquinot,  Dominique,  L'  Usage  de 
r  Astrolabe,  i,  200. 

James,  Thomas,  ii,  99  n.,  100. 

James  foundry,  obtains  types  from 
Holland,  n,  99,  100 ;  purchased 
by  Mores,  102  w. 

Jansson,  J.,  ii,  29. 

Jaugeon,  Nicolas,  i,  7,  11,  241  and  n. 

Jenson,  Nicolas,  at  Venice,  i,  73  ;  his 
roman  types,  73,  74,  79;hisgothic 
tvpes,  74,  78 ;  books  printed  and 
published  by,  74  ;  contemporary 
eulogy  of,  74-76;  mentioned,  71, 
234,  243,  n,  116,  177,  206,  207, 
208,  212,  217,  233. 

Jobin,  BeiTihard,  i,  141. 

Johannot,  Tony,  ii,  180. 

John  of  Westphalia,  i,  97. 

Johnson,  Lawrence,  n,  156. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  quoted,  i,  126; 
Dictionary,  ii,  140, 141;  Rasselas, 
189. 

Joly,  Maurice  P.,  i,  267. 

Jombert,  C.  A.,  i,  222. 

Jordan,  Peter  C,  n,  156. 

Josephus,  Flavius,  Works,  i,  193, 
194;  History  of  t/ie  Jews,  200, 201. 

Junius,  Francis  :  his  gift  of  (iothic, 
Saxon,  and  other  types  to  Oxford, 
n,  95,  96;  Etymologicum  Angli- 
canum,  135  n. 

Junta,  Tomas,  ii,  69. 

Juvenal,  Satires  (Du  Pr6),  i,  91; 
(Imprimerie  Royale),  241. 


Juvenal  and  Persius  (Aldus),  i,  126, 
128;  Haskerville,  ii,  112;  (Chis- 
wick  Press,  198,  199. 

JS.ANTKR,  Berlin  type-founder,  I, 
151. 

Kauffniann,  Angelica,  ii,  161. 

Kchlin,  Ignacc  A.,i,  180. 

Kelmscott  Press,  established  by  W. 
Mon-is,  II,  204 ;  editions  of,  con- 
sidered, 204,  205,  207,  208,  216. 

Kerver,  Jacques,  I,  191,  199. 

Kerver,  Thielman,  i,  193. 

Ketelaer  and  Leempt,  Dutch  print- 
ers, I,  94,  95. 

Klopstock,  F.  G.,  Alessiaa,  i,  147. 

Koberger,  Anton,  i,  63,  64,  65,  ii, 
207. 

Koler,  Andr.,  i,  156. 

Konnecke,  Gustav,  Bilderatlas  zur 
Geschichte  der  deutschen  JVational- 
litteratur,  i,  141  n. 

Kranz,  Martin,  i,  83,  85. 

JL/A  Fontainp:,  Jean  de.  Fables  Choi- 

sies,  I,  213,  215,  222  and  n.,  223 
and  72.;  Contes  {edition  des  fer- 
miers-generaux) ,  215;  {edition 
du  Louvre),  217. 

La  Motte,  Antoine  H.  de.  Fables 
JVouvelles,  I,  219,  220. 

La  Rochelle,  Nee  de,  quoted,  n,  57. 

Lactantius,  0/iera,  i,  72. 

Laet,  J.  de,  Gallia,  ii,  16. 

Laigue,  Estienne  de,  i,  195. 

Lama,  Giuseppe  de,  ii,  168,  173  n. 

Lamesle,  Claude,  specimen,  i,  213, 
270,  271;  mentioned,  202. 

Latin  alphabet,  l,  38-57. 

Latin  writing,  periods  in  histoiy  of, 
I,  42  ff. ;  and  see  Carolingian  mi- 
nuscule. Humanistic  writing. 

Laud,  William,  n,  95,  96. 

Laurent,  J.  F.,  ii,  183  and  n. 

Le  Be,  Guillaume  I :  his  Hebrew 
types,  I,  204,  205;  mentioned,  n, 
4,  6,  7. 


INDEX 


295 


I^  He,  Guillaume  II,  letter  of,  to 
Morctus,  II,  5,  6;  mentioned,  i, 
205,  212. 

Le  Be,  (iuillaumelll,  and  his  daugh- 
ter, I,  205,  248;  mentioned,  II,  36. 

Le  m  foundry,  1,266. 

L'hxluse,  Charles  de,  liariorum 
Slirfiiurn   Hisfuinve   Historia,  ii, 

10,  11,  13. 

I>e  Fcivre,  Haoul,  i,  114. 

Le  Jay,  (iui  Michel,  Polyglot  Bible, 

1,208,  238,  II,  98,  103. 
IjC  Mercier,  P.  (i.,  i,  213. 
Le    Monnier     (Abl)(;),     Ft-len    dfs 

Doiiues-Gens  de  Canon,  ii,  163  n. 
Le   Petit,   Jules,   Bihlioirrafihie  dts 

J^inci/iales  Editions,  etc. ,  i,  232  n. 
Le  Petit,  Pierre,  i,  209,  210. 
Le  Preux,  Poncet,  i,  195. 
Le  Rouge,  Pierre,  i,  88,233. 
Ijd  Roy,  (iuillaume,  l,  89. 
Le  Royer,  Jean,  i,  202. 
\jt  Sueur,  Nicolas,  i,  223. 
I^eeu,  Gerard,  i,  95. 
Lef&vre,  Th.,i,  24. 
Leger,  L.,  specimen,  ii,  183,  184. 
Legouve,   (iabi-iel,  Le   Merite    dea 

Femmes,  etc.,  ii,  163  n. 
Legi-and,  type-founder  at  Avignon, 

I,  180. 

I>emcrcier,  Pierre  G.,  i,  273. 
Ix;nzoni,  C,  La  Clori,  i,  168. 
Lesage,  A.  L.,  Gil  likifi,  ii,  180. 
Leslie,  Charles,  T/icological  J I  oris, 

11,  135,  136. 

Lessing,  (iotthold  Ephraim,  JVat/ian 

der  IVeise,  i,  148. 
Letters  of  Charlotte,  The,  ii,  143. 
Letters  of  Indulgence,  i,  60,  61. 
I^ttersnijder,  Cornells  Henriczoon, 

II,  26  and  n. 
Lettersnijder,  Jan,  ii,  26. 
I>ettou,  John,  I,  122. 

Lettre  batarde,  i,  55,  60,  86  and  n., 
87,  91,92,96,116,122,124,192; 
(Mouchon's,  1890),  ii,  222. 

Lettre  de  forme,  i,  S5,  60,  61,  62, 


86  and   n.,  89,  90,  93,  96,  116, 

117,121,122,124,192,193,194, 

195. 
iMtre  de  somme,  i,  60, 63  and  n.,  64. 
Lettre  francoyse  d^art  et  de  main. 

See  Civilite  tyj)e. 
Leyes  del  Quaderno,  etc.,  I,  110. 
Leyes  fior    la    Brtrvedad    dea    loa 

Pleitos,\,  109. 
Liber  Festivalis,  i,  120. 
Lihros  Alenores,  i,  108. 
Lied  auf  die  Schlacht  von  Pavia,  i, 

141. 
Liliode  Medicina,  i,  110. 
Lille,  Abb6  de,  i,  226,  227. 
Lipsius,  Justus,  ii,  11,  13. 
Littlefield,  George  E.,  ii,  149  n. 
Littleton,  Sir  Thomas,  Tenores  A''o- 

velli,i,  122. 
Litui-gical  works  in  Spain,  ii,  50. 
Livermore,  Martin,  ii,  105. 
Livy,    0/iera     (Coci),   ii,    62,    65; 

( Wetstein  and  Luchtnians) ,  33. 
Lobel,  Mathias  de,  ii,  13. 
Lol)inger,  Ptuicr.,  i,  156. 
Loneissen,(i.E.,  Fon  Zeu?nen,i,14l. 
Loritus,   Henricus,  Dodecachordon, 

I,  145. 
Lorraine,  Jean  de,  ii,  89  n. 
Los  Santos,  Fi-ancisco  de,  Descriji- 

cion  breve,  etc.,  u,  69,  70. 
IjOthaire,     Cai-dinal,     Comfiendium 

Bre^ye,  I,  89. 
I^ittin,    Augustin    Martin,    i,    212, 

247,  251^  266  and  n.,  268,  272. 
I^uis  XIII,  I,  207,  209,  238. 
Louis  XIV,  I,  206,  241,  242,  246, 

275. 
I^ouisXV,  I,  245,247,  275. 
I^Hiis  XVI, I,  48, 216,  247,  272,  275. 
Ix)uis  Philippe,  i,  276. 
Ijouvain,  airly  printing  at,  i,  95,  96, 

97,  98. 
Ix)uveiui,  J.,  I,  201. 
Ijower-case  letters,  beginnings  of,  i, 

45. 
Ley  son  specimen,  i,  268. 


296 


INDEX 


Lucan,  Pharsalia  (Rcnouanl),  i, 
230;  (Strawberry  Hill),  ii,  140. 

Luce,  I>niis:  his  types,  i,  244,  245, 
246;  his  lissai  cVune  Aouve/le  7]/- 
/ipqra/t/iie,  etc.,  244  and  n.,  245  ; 
K/ireuve  du  Preynier  Aljihabeth 
Droit  ft  Pencfic,  246  ancbi.;  men- 
tioned, 148,259,  263,  ii,  159,160, 
181,  187. 

Lucena,  Juan  de,  Refieticion  de  Amo- 
res,  etc.,  i,  110. 

Luchtmans,  Samuel,  ii,  33. 

Luckombe,  Philip,  History  of  Print- 
ing, II,  104  n. 

Lucretius,  Z)f  Rerum  Ab/wra, Italian 
ti-anslation  of,  u,  163  n. 

Luther,  Ei-asmus,  specimen,  i,  135; 
mentional,  150  and  7i. 

Luther,  Martin,  German  Bible,  i, 
145,  146;  mentioned,  143,  150. 

Luthei-an  Found rj-,  i,  150  and  n., 
157. 

Lyons,  early  printingat,  i,  89-91 ;  Al- 
dus's  italic  pii-ated  at,  130  ;  print- 
ing at,  in  sixteentli  centur\',  202- 
204;  printers'  strike  at,  in  1539, 
n,  253-256,  and  its  results,  258. 

JVIcCreery,  John,  The  Press,  ii, 
124,  189;  specimen,  124  n. 

McCulloch, William,  quoted,  n,  152, 
153. 

McKerrow,  R.  B.,ii,  93  and  n. 

Mabre-Cramoisy,  Sebastien,  i,  211 
and  n. 

Machlinia,  William  de,  i,  97,  117, 
122,  n,  89. 

Mackail,  J.  W.,  quoted,  u,  210  n. 

Mackellar,  Thomas,  n,  156. 

Mackellar,  Smiths  and  Jordan,  ii, 
156. 

Madan,  Falconer,  The  Oscford  Uni- 
versity P}'ess,  II,  97  n. 

Magalotti,  Lorenzo,  Count,  Sag-gi 
di  JVaturali  Esfierienze,  etc.,  i, 
169. 

Mainz,  early  printing  at,  liy  Guten- 
bei-g,  I,  4,  5;  earliest  dated  piece 


of  printing  printed  at,  60;  other 
works  printed  at,  61  fF. ;  sack  of 
(1462),  ciuises  printers  to  scatter 
througli  Euroj)e,  67;  their  chief 
customers,  67,  68  ;  the  types  they 
made, 68,  69;  went  mostly  to  Italy, 
69;  at  Subiaco,  71. 

Malo  de  Lugue,  Eduartlo,  Estabti- 
cimientos  Ultra  mar  inos,  etc.,  ii, 
75,  76. 

MaloiT,  Sir  T.,  Morte  Darthur,  n, 
213'. 

Mame,A.  H.  A.,ii,  182. 

Manifiulus  Curatorum,  x,  85,  106. 

Manni,  Joseph,  i,  171. 

Mansion,  Colard,  i,  95,  96,  97,  115, 
116,  119,11,  89. 

Manuel  de  Mena,  Francisco,  n,  52. 

Manuale  Burgense,  i,  108. 

Manuscripts,  first  printed  books  imi- 
tations of  late,  I,  38,  39;  copying 
of,  under  Charlemagne,  48,  49 ; 
relation  of  gothic  types  to,  48,  52, 
53,  60;  Italian  and  early  printed 
books,  80,  81;  and  printing,  136, 
137;  and  see  Humanistic  writing. 

Manutius,  Aldus.  See  Aldus. 

Manutius,  Paul,  i,  180,  181. 

Mappa,  Adam  Gerard,  u,  152. 

Marcellin-Legrand,n,  179, 184,187. 

Marcolini,  F.,  I,  160. 

Marder,  Luse  &  Co.,  i,  33. 

Mariana,  Juan  de,  Historia  General 
de  Esfiana,  ii,  56,  58,  77 . 

Mariette,  Denis,  n,  261. 

Marillier,  Clement  Pierre,  i,  214, 
224. 

Marin,  Antonio,  n,  59,  79. 

iVIarshall,  'Diomas,  quoted,  li,  96, 
97;  mentioned,  43. 

Martens,  lliierry,  i,  96,  ii,  26,  27. 

Martial,  Efiigrams,  i,  197. 

Martin,  Edme,  i,  209. 

Martin,  Robert,  n,  114. 

Martin,  William  :  his  types,  ii,  123, 
124  and  n.,  230;  mentioned,  121, 
144  and  n.,  145,  146,  147,  189. 

Martinez,  Antonio,  i,  108. 


INDEX 


297 


Martinez  de  Jai-avia,   Antonio.    See 

Nebrija,  Antonio  dc. 
Mathematical  signs,  early  use  of,  i, 

18  n. 
Matthaeus  of  Flanders,  i,  105,  106. 
Mattioli,  P.  A.,  commentaiy  on  Di- 

oscorides,  i,  173  n. 
Aluximes  Morales  et  Politiquea  tireea 

de  Teletna(jue,  i,  247. 
Mayeur.  See  Fonderie  Mayeur. 
Mazi6res,Veuve,  I,  220. 
Medailles  sur  les  Princifiaujc  Eve- 

nements  dii   R^ffue  de   Louis  le 

Grand,  i,242.  ' 
Medici,  Cardinal  Feixlinand  de',  i, 

134. 
Medici  Society,  London,  ii,  215. 
Mellottee,  Paul,  ii,  249. 
Mena.  See  Manuel  de  Mena. 
Mendez,  F. ,  Tyfwgrafihia  Es/iaTiola, 

11,52,  53,  55,59,  82  n. 
Mendoza.  See  Salazar  de  Mcndoza. 
Mentelin,  Jolin,  i,  65,  66,  ii,  206. 
Mer  des  Hijstoires,  i,  88,  91. 
Mercator,  ii,  23. 
MercatorandHondius,  Atlas  JVorvus , 

II,  29. 
Merrymount  Press,  ii,  214,  217. 
Mexico,  first  American  book  printed 

in  (1539),  II,  60. 
Microcosm  of  London,  The,  ii,  191. 
Millar,  A.,  II,  139. 
Miller  &  Richard,  "Series  of  Old 

Founts,"  II,  230,  236. 
Milton,  John,  Works  (Baskerville), 

II,  109,  110;  Poetical  Works  (Bul- 

nier),  144,   145;    Paradise  Lost 

(Foulis),143;  Early  Poems  (Vale 

Press),  211. 
Miroir  de  Vie  Humaine,  i,  89. 
Mirouer  de  la  Redemfition,  Le,  i,  89. 
Mirror  of  Consolation,  i,  121. 
Mirrour  of  the  World,  i,  117. 
Misconiini,  Antonio,  i,  79,  80. 
Missal,  Bamberg  (1481  and  1488), 

I,   62  and   n.;  Sarum   (Notary), 

121,     (Pynson),    123;    Tolcdan, 

109;  ;md  see  following  entries. 


Missale  Dioceaia  Colonienais,  i,  191. 

Miaaale  Pariaienae,  l,  86. 

Miaaale  liomanum,  u,  45,  46. 

Miaaale  Salisburgenae,  I,  62. 

Miaaale  aecundum  uaum  Lugduni, 
I,  90. 

Miaaarum  AIuaicalium,i,  195,  196. 

Mn\6Jeune,  specimens,  ii,  182;  men- 
tioned, 184. 

Molicire  (J.  B.  Poquelin,  dit) ,  CEuvrea 
(Prault),  I,  230;  (Didot),  230. 

Molini  (G.  C.)  and  Lamy(P.M.),  i, 
227. 

Momoro,  A.F.,i,  249  and  n. 

Monfort,  Benito,  n,  52,  56,  58  and 
n.,  77,  78. 

Monnet,  Jean,  Anthologie Franqoiae, 
etc.,  I,  223,  224. 

Montaigne,  Michel  de,  Kaaays,  ii, 
216. 

Montano,  Benito  A.,  ii,  4,  13. 

Montfaucon,  Afonumens  de  la  Mon- 
archie  Frajiqoiae,  i,  220. 

Moore,  Isaac,  &  Co.,  specimen,  n. 
118. 

Morales,  Juan  Gomez,  ii,  51,  52. 

Moi-ante,  Diaz,  Arte  JVueva  de  Ea- 
cribir,  ii,  87. 

Moreau,  Pierre:  his  types,  i,  207, 
208;  mentioned,  269,  ii,  163  n. 

Moreau,  J.  M.,  lejeune,  i,  214. 

Moreri,  Louis,  ii,  260,  261. 

Mores,  Edward  Rowe :  his  Disserta- 
tion u/ion  English  Ty/wgrafihical 
E'ounders  and  Founderies  quoted, 
I,  25  n.,  86  n.,  ii,  43,96,100, 102, 
103,  239,  240;  specimen  of  James 
foundry,  102  n. 

Moretus,  Edouard,  ii,  15. 

Moretus,  Johan  I,  Plantin's  son-in- 
law,  letter  of  Le  Be  II  to,  ii,  5,  6 ; 
mentioned,  13,  36,  Sii. 

Moretus,  Julian  II,  ii,  13,  36. 

Moi-gan,  Jolin  Piei-jjont,  Catalogue  of 
Alanuscri/its,  etc.,  in  libraiy  of, 
11,201. 

Morosini,  Andrea,  Historia  Veneta, 
I,  166. 


298 


INDEX 


Morris,  William,  as  writer  and  dec- 
orator, II,  202;  as  printer,  203; 
establisiies  Kclniscott  Press,  204; 
his  .Yote  on  his  ylims,  etc.,  205, 
206;  his  types,  206,  207;  his  work 
considered,  207, 208,  and  its  effect 
on  typogni])hy,  208,  209;  quoted, 
230;  mentioned,  201,  210,  211, 
212,  216,  217,  245;  The  Roots  of 
the  Mountains,  204 ;  Gunnlaug 
Saga,  204 ;  77;<?  Story  of  the  Glit- 
tering Plain  (first  "Kelmscott" 
book),  204;  The  Golden  Legend, 
206;  Historyes  of  IVoye ,  207;  The 
Order  of  Chivalry,  207. 

Moxon,  Joseph,  sketch  of,  i,  9  n.; 
specimens  and  Mechanick  Exer- 
cises, 9  n.,  135,  II,  43,  44,  95  and 
72.;  quoted,  43;  his  foundry,  99; 
mentioned,  i,  261,  n,  20,  21. 

Mozai-abic  Breviary,  u,  45. 

Mozai-abic  Missal,  n,  45. 

Mozet,  Claude,  i,  268. 

Muller,  J.  C.,i,  156. 

Murray,  Gilbert,  quoted,  n,  247. 

Murray,  John,  ii,  191. 

Music  printing,  i,  155,  195,  196. 

Music  types,  Sanlecque,  i,  213  ;  Four- 
nier,  265  ;  Plantin,  ii,  5  ;  Elzevir, 
21;  Rosart,  41,  42. 

Myllar,  Androw,  first  Scottish  print- 
er, u,  89  n. 

JNannini,  Remigio,  Considerationi 
Cix'ili,  I,  164. 

Napoleon  I,  i,  183,  218,  275,  276, 
u,  165. 

Napoleon  III,  i,  276. 

Nebrija,  Antonio  de,  Introductionum 
Latinariim,  i,  108,  109  ;  Introduc- 
tiones  in  Latinam  Grammaticam, 
11,  66,  67;  Hymnorum  Recognitio, 
67 ;  mentioned,  i,  101 ;  and  see  Un- 
known Printer  of  Salamanca. 

Nebrija,  Sancho  de,  n,  65,  66,  67. 

Nebrissensis,  ^^ius  Antoninus.  See 
Nebrija,  A.  de. 

Neobar,  Conrad,  i,  233. 


Netherlands  (Holland  and  Hdgium) , 
types  and  jjrinting  in  the  :  fifteenth 
century,  i,  93-98  ;  from  1500  to 
1800,  II,  3-44;  modem,  222. 

Neudorfer,  Johann,  i,  140  n. 

Neumeister,  J.,  i,  62,  90. 

New,  Edmund,  n,  214. 

JVe%o  English  Dictionary,  ii,  141. 

New  Testament  (Froben),  i,  143; 
(Uidot),  229,  230;  (F.stienne), 
237 ;  Irish  (Everingham)  ,ii,  95  n. 

Newcomb,  Thomas,  ii,  132. 

Nicholls,  A.,  II,  98. 

Nicholls,  Nicholas,  earliest  English 
specimen  (1665),  i,  135,  ii,  94, 
95. 

Nichols,  Charles  L.,  ii,  156. 

Nichols,  John,  ii,  121. 

Nicol,  George,  ii,  123,  144  and  n., 
146,  148  n. 

Nicol,  W.,  II,  144. 

Nijhoff,  M'outer,  L'Art  Jl/pogra- 
fihiquc  dans  les  Pays-Bas,  ii,  25 
and  n.,  26,  27. 

Nogarola,  L.,  Dialogus,  etc.,  i,  162. 

North,  Sir  Thomas,  translation  of 
Plutarch,  ii,  90,  128. 

Notary,  Julian,  i,  121. 

Novan-a,  C.  G.  de,  Conteiyi/ilaciones 
sobre  el Rosario,  etc.,  i,  111. 

Noyers,  Sublet  de,  i,  239. 

.Nuremberg  Chronicle,  i,  65. 

Nutt,  David,  n,  201. 

xJbelisco  Vaticano,  Delia  Tras- 
fiortazione  dell',  i,  181. 

Obra  Allaors  de  S.  Cristofol,  i,  110. 

Occleve,  'Iliomas,  i,  56. 

Officia  Quotidiana,  i,  106,  ii,  45. 

Officina  Isingriniana,  printing-house, 
I,  144. 

Officina  Plantiniana,  u,  14,  15. 

Ogilby,  John,  u,  99,  132. 

Old  Style,  "  Modernized  "  or  "Re- 
vived," II,  201  and  tz.,  232. 

Oliveros  de  Castillo,  i.  111. 

Olivier,  Peter,  ii,  89  n. 


INDKX 


299 


01schki,LeoS.,quotetl,  I,  39,  178 n. 
Oporinus,  J.,  I,  143. 
Orcesi,  Niccolo,  i,  177. 
Ordinate  sen  IHca  Sarum,  i,  117. 
Orga,  JosC-  dc,  ii,  52  and  n.,  53  and 

n.,58. 
Orga,  Tomas  de,  ii,  52  n. 
Oriental  types,  i,  179  «.,  IHl,  182; 

II,  95,  96,  98,  122. 
Oriental  typography,  i,  179  n.,  181, 

182. 
Orsi,  Luigi,  n,  169. 
Ortel,   Abraham,    Theat7~um    Orbis 

Terrarum,  n,  11,  29;  mentioned, 

13,  23. 
Ortiz  de  Saravia,  Maria,  n,  69. 
Os,  (iottfried  van,  i,  120. 
Oudn',  Jean  Biiptiste,  i,  213,  215, 

222. 
Ovid,    Heroides    (Bindoni),    i,    173 

n. ; Metamor/ihosrs  (Gorgonzola) , 

159,  160;  (Tonson),ii,  135.  Sec 

Vita,  La,  etc. 
Oxfoixl,  early  printing  at,  i,  123. 
Oxford  Book  of  English  Verse,  u, 

200. 
Oxford  Foundry,  n,  97. 

Oxford ' '  type,  u,  23 1 . 
Oxfoi-d  University,  u,  94. 
Oxford  University  Press,  specimens, 

I,  135  ;  history  of,  u,  95  ff. ;  men- 
tioned, 43,  44,  122,  133,  135  n., 

238. 

X  ABLOS,  Juan,  II,  60. 

Pace,  Richard,  Oratio,  n,  89. 

Paderbom,  Johann  of,  i,  95. 

PaflFraet,  Albert,  ii,  27. 

Paffraet,  Richard,  i,  95. 

Palencia,  Alfonso  de,  Efxistula   de 
Btllo  Granatensi,  i,  108. 

Pahmrt,  Lambert,  i,  105,106,  107, 
108. 

Palmer,  Samuel,  ii,  99  72.,  136. 

Pannartz,  Arnold,  i,  71,  72,  78, 
79 ;  and  see  Sweynheym  and  Pan- 
nartz. 


Pantagraph,  uses  of,  in  type-cutting, 
I,  11,  12. 

Paolini,  Stefano,  i,  182. 

Paolo  (iiovio,  Historiarum  sui  Tem- 
/ioriN,i,  161;  Vitf/'  duodeci/n  Vice- 
comttum  Mediotani  Princi/ium, 
235. 

Papillon,  J.  B.,  1,215,220,  222,223, 
274. 

Paradin,  Claude,  ^^///fl«f^«  Cicnealo- 
ffifjues  des  Rois  dc  France,  i,  202, 
203;  Hymb'Aa  Heroica,  11,  10. 

Par6,  Amljroise,  Methode  Curative, 
etc.,  I,  202. 

Parentalia  in  jinniversario  Funere 
Mariai'.  Clementinae,  etc.,  i,  182, 
183. 

Paris,  early  printing  at,  i,  82;  six- 
teenth century  printing  at,  1 88 fT. ; 
printers'  strike  in,  in  sixteenth 
century,  11,  256,  257;  conditions 
of  printing  in,  in  early  eighteentli 
century,  258  and  n.,  259  ff. 

Parker,  Mattliew,  quoted,  11,  91; 
De  AntUjuitate  Britannicfe  Eccle- 
siae,  91,  92;  mentioned,  98,  128. 

Parma,  Duchy  of,  11,  55  and  n.;  and 
see  Ik)doni,  Giambattista. 

Pamell,  Thomas.  See  Goldsmith. 

PasquaH,  J.  B.,i,  174. 

Pasteur,  J.  A.,  specimens,  i,  274,  n, 
183. 

Pater,  Paul,  specimen,  i,  152. 

Pavoni,  Giuseppe,  i,  165. 

Peignot  foundry,  Paris,  n,  223, 
227. 

Peintures  Antiques  de  Bartoli,  pix>- 
spectus  of,  I,  227,  228. 

Pelican  Press,  London,  11,  216  n. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  11,  70. 

Percier,  Charles,  i,  231,  u,  163  n. 

Pemot,  type-founder  at  Avignon,  i, 
180. 

Perrin,  I^^uis,  11,  185. 

Persius,  Satires,  11,  67;  and  see  Ju- 
venal and  Persius. 

Peter  the  Great,  his  Bible,   n,  32, 


300 


INDEX 


Petit,  Jean,  i,  193,  200. 

Petit  Bernard,  I  a:.  6>f  Salomon,  Ber- 
naixl. 

Petnurh,  Francesco,  i,  78,  128. 

Peti-i,  Henric,  i,  145. 

Petri,  Joh.,  specimen,  i,  133,  134, 
145. 

Phalaris,  E/iistolfe,  i,  109. 

Philip  II  and  printing  in  Spain,  ii,  48, 
49. 

Philip  V  and  printing  in  Spain,  ii,  49, 
50;  mentioned,  71. 

Philip,  Duke  of  Parma,  ii,  55. 

Piazzetta,  J.  B.,  i,  174. 

Picart,  Jean,  i,  250. 

Picart,  Bcmard,  ii,  24,  33,  34. 

Pickering,  William,  ii,  198,  199. 

Pickering  editions,  n,  199. 

Pierres,  Philippe  Denis,  specimen,  i, 
250,  255  n.,  273,  274;  his  career, 
272,  273  ;  mentioned,  269. 

Pignoni,  Z.,  i,  168. 

Pigouchet,  Philippe,  i,  88. 

Pinard,  J.,u,  183. 

Pine,  Jolin,  his  edition  of  Horace,  ii, 
137,  138. 

Pine,  William,  n,  118. 

Pinelli,  Antonio,  i,  166. 

Pissarro,  Lucien,  ii,  213. 

Pistorius,  Jean,  i,  151. 

Pius  VII,  I,  183,184,  276. 

Plantin,  Christophe,  specimen,  i, 
134,  II,  7,  8  ;  career  of,  3  fF. ;  made 
Antwerp  a  centre  of  printing,  4; 
his  Polyglot  Bible,  4,  7,  10  ;  divers 
printing  "privileges,"  5;  rela- 
tions with  Du  Tour,  5 ;  his  music 
types,  5  ;  his  earlier  and  later  work 
compared,  10  ff.;  his  death,  13; 
mentioned,  i,  143,  n,  28,  29,  36, 
37,  47,  48,  49,  52,  53. 

Plantin-Moretus  family,  ii,  48. 

Plantin-Moretus  office,  ii,  13  ff., 
50. 

Plantin-Moretus  Museum,  ii,  14, 
37;  S/iecimen  des  Caract^res, etc., 
8,9. 

Plautus,  Comcedise,  i,  222. 


Pliny,  Hiatoria  JVdturalis  (John  de 
Spire),  I,  72;  (Elzevir),  ii,  17; 
Holland's  translation  (Islip),  130, 
131. 

Ploos  van  Amstel,  brothers,  ii,  23, 
39,  40,  42. 

Plutarch,  Lives,  Nortli's  transla- 
tion, ii,  90, 128. 

Poetique  type  (Luce),  i,  244,  245, 
246. 

Poetry  of  the  Anti-Jacobin,  ii,  189. 

Poggiali,  C,  Memorie  j\er  le  Storia 
Letteraria  di  l^acenza,  i,  177. 

Point-line.  See  Standard  Limng  Sys- 
tem. 

Point-set,  i,  34,  37. 

Point  system,  Foumier's,  i,  26  ff.; 
his  description  of  it,  28-31;  and 
the  metric  system,  32,  33;  the 
American,  33 ;  effect  of  its  adop- 
tion in  typographical  practice,  34 ; 
adopted  in  England,  34;  and  see 
Foumier  (Pierre  Simon),  Didot 
(Frangois  Ambroise). 

Pole,  Reginald,  Cardinal,  De  Con- 
cilio,  I,  180,  181. 

Pollard,  Alfred  W. ,  Catalogue  of  the 
Annmary  Brown  Memorial  (Haw- 
kins) Collection,  i,  68  n.;  quoted, 
I,  4,  5,  65,  68,  88,  95,  96,  103, 
109,  125,  126,  137,  ii,  94,  126, 
216. 

Polyglot  Bible,  Complutensian,  his- 
tory and  description  of,  ii,  46, 
63-65;  mentioned,  i,  192,  ii,  98, 
216;  Plantin's,  n,  4,  7,  10,  98 ;  Le 
Jay's  (Paris) ,  i,  208,  238,  n,  103 ; 
Walton's  (London),  n,  92,  98, 
132. 

Polyglot  Founders,  the,  n,  98. 

Pombal,  Marquis  de,  n,  54  n. 

Pompadour,  Madame  de,  as  printer, 
I,  247  and  n. 

Pompeii.  See  Herculaneum. 

Pomponius  Mela,  Cosmografihia,  i, 
108. 

Pontanus,  J.,  Rerum  et  Urbis  Am- 
stelodamensium  Historia  (Hon- 
dius),  Latin,  ii,  28;  Dutch,  29. 


INDEX 


301 


Ponz,  Antonio,  quoted,  n,  73,  82. 

Pope,  Alexander,  Works  (Tonson), 
II,  135;  (Bowyer),  136;  (Foulis), 
142 ;  translation  of  the  Iliad  (Bow- 
yer), 136. 

Pradell,  Kudaldo  I,  ii,  83,  84. 

Pradell,  Eudaldo II, specimen, II,  83, 
84. 

Pradell,  Mai-guerite,  wife  of  Pedro 
Ifern,  ii,  84. 

Pi-ault,  Pierre,  i,  230. 

Pr6,  Galiot  du,  i,  195. 

Pr6,  Jean  du,  I,  86,  88,91. 

Pr6vost,  Abbe,  travels,  i,  216. 

Prince,  E.  P.,ii,  215,  236. 

Printers,  early,  methods  of,  i,  66- 
69;  their  own  type-designers  ;ind 
founders,  133. 

Printing,  date  of  introduction  of,  in 
various  Eui-opam  countries,  i,  59  ; 
sejjaration  of,  from  letter-found- 
ing, ii,  98. 

Prior,  Matthew,  Poeiits,  u,  135. 

Proctor,  Robert,  i,  80,  90,  91,  236, 
II,  95  7z.,215,  216  and  n. 

Propag-anda  Fide,  press  of  the,  speci- 
men alphabets,  i,  134,  135;  men- 
tioned, II,  163,  164. 

Prototype,  the,  i,  29,  30,  31. 

Psalter,  Latin  (Mainz),  first  dated 
book  printed  from  mo\able  types, 

I,  62,  82;  Sarum  (Caxton),  117. 
Psalterium  .  .  .  Virginia  Alarie,  i, 

193. 
Ptolemy,   L.    Claudius,    Cosmogra- 

fihia,  I,  66. 
Pulgar,  Fernando  de,  Cronica  de  los 

Reyes  Catolicos  (Monfort),  ii,  58, 

78;  (Sancho  de  Nebrija),  66;  El 

Gran  Cafiitan,  62. 
Punches, hand-cut,  i,  10  ;  invention  of 

machine  for  cutting,  1 1 ;  tlie  meth- 

otls  compared,  11,  12. 
Py  bu s ,  Charles  Small ,  77if5orer«^n , 

II,  188. 

Pyes  of  Salisbury  Use,  i,  117. 
Pynson,  Richard,  i,  122,  123,  u,  88, 
89  and  n.,  125,  126. 


K^UJESTIONES  Jntonii  Jndrese,  i, 

122. 
Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer  Book,  ii, 

92. 
Quincufilex Paalterium,  i,  192,  193. 

K.  BizARRK,"  font  of  the,  i,  65. 
Racine,  Jean,    CEuvrea    {edition  du 

Louvre),   i,   217,   ii,    177,    178; 

Jthatie,  i,  211. 
Ramirez,  Gabriel,  ii,  54,  59,  79. 
Ramsay,  A.  M.  de,  Histoire  du  Vi- 

conxte  de  7\irenne,  i,  220,  221. 
Raphelengius,  F.,  specimen,  i,  134; 

mentioned,  ii,  13. 
Ratdolt,  Erhard,  boi-ders  and  initials, 

I,  77  and  n.;   specimen,  77,  133, 

145;  mentioned,  79. 
Rayon,  Jose  Sancho,  ii,  45. 
Real  Biblioteca,  Madrid,  specimen, 

n,  83. 
Rechten,  ende  Costumen  van  Ant- 

iver/ien,  u,  12. 
Recuyell  of  the  Histaryes  of  Troye, 

I,  114. 
Reed,  T.  B. :  his  History  of  Old  Eng- 
lish   Letter  Foundries  quoted,  I, 

14  n.,  II,  89  n.,  91,  93,  100. 
Regnault,  Francis,:,  193,  200. 
Relaciondel  Ultimo  Viage  al Estrecho 

de  Magallanes,  ii,  59. 
Rembolt,  Berthold,  i,  85,  86. 
Renouaixl,  Antoine  A.,  i,  230,231. 
Renouard,  Ph.,  i,  198  n.,  n,  174, 

179. 
"  Republics,  The  "  (EUzevir),  n,  16, 

17. 
Resfiublica,  sive  Status  Regni  Scotise 

et  Hibernias,  ii,  16. 
Revelation  of  St.  jYicholas,  i,  122. 
Reynolds,    Sir    Joshua,    Discourse, 

etc.,  II,  142. 
Ricaitlo,  Antonio,  ii,  60. 
Riccaixli  Press  editions,  ii,  215. 
Ricci,   Seymour   de,   A    Census   of 

Caxtons,  i,  120  «. 
Richelieu,  Caixlinal,  Les  Princifiaujc 


302 


INDEX 


Poinds  de  la  Foy  Catholiquc  De- 
fenduH,  I,  240;  mentioned,  209, 
238  and  «.,  239. 

Ricketts,  Charles,  and  tlie  Vale  Press, 
u,  210,211  ;  mentioned,  213. 

Ridolfi,  B.,  Oratio  in  Funere  Caroli 
III,  II,  55. 

Ringhier,  Innocent,  Dialogue  de  la 
Vie  et  de  la  Mort,  i,  201. 

Ripoli  Press,  i,  9  and  n.,  10. 

Risorgimento  Grajico,  il,  222. 

Riverside  Press,  n,  216. 

Robert,  Hubert,  n,  160. 

Roberts,  S.  C,  Fhe  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Press,  1521-1921, 11, 96  n. 

Rockner,  Vincenz,  i,  140  n. 

Rogers,  Bruce,  quoted,  i,  11,  12; 
his  types,  ii,  216,  217;  men- 
tioned, I,  189. 

Rolu,  Dutch  letter-cutter,  n,  100. 

Romain  du  roi.  See  Grandjean. 

Roman,  Jan,  n,  23. 

Roman  capitals  with  italic  fonts,  i, 
130. 

Roman  characters,  source,  i,  38,  39. 

Roman  cursive  hand,  old,  i,  44 ;  new, 
I,  45. 

Roman  period,  in  history  of  Latin 
writing,  i,  42-45  ;  scrifitura  cur- 
siva  and  scrifitura  erecta,  43,  44. 

Rome,  early  printing  at,  i,  72 ; 
foundry  at,  179,  181. 

Ronaldson,  James,  specimens,  n,  155, 
156;  mentioned,  153. 

Ronaldson,  Richard,  n,  156. 

Rooman,  Adriaen,  ii,  29. 

Rooses,  Max,  Christofihe  Plantin,  ii, 
5  n. 

Rosart,  Jean  Francois :  specimen,  ii, 
40,  41,  42  n.;  and  the  Ejischedes, 
40,  41 ;  his  music  types,  41,  42. 

Rosenbach,  J.,  i,  111. 

Rouen,  and  tlie  ti-ade  in  types,  u, 
89  7z. 

"Round"  Gothic  type.  See  Lettre 
de  somme. 

Rousseau,  Jean  Baptiste,  (Euvres,  i, 
221. 


Royal  printers  and  types  in  Fi-ance, 

I,  ^oo. 
Royci-oft,   Thomas,  ii,  92,  98,  99, 

132. 
Ruel,  Jean,  De  JSTatura  Stirfiium,  i, 

197. 
Ruggeri,  C,  i,  182,  ii,  164. 
Rusch,  Adolph  ("R  Printer"),  i, 

65. 

O,  LONG,  lower  case,  u,  229  and  n. 
Sacrobosco,  Johannes  de,  Textus  de 

S/ih^ra,  I,  197. 
St.  Albans,  early  printing  at,  i,  123. 
St.  Aubin,  A.  de,  i,  223,  259. 
St.  Joseph,  Fabricadel  Conventode, 

Barcelona,  specimen,  ii,  81,  82. 
St.  Juan  Climaco,  De  las  Tablaa  y 

Escalera  S/iiritual,  ii,  60,  61. 
Saint-Lambert,  J.  D.  de,  Les  Sai- 

sons,  I,  224,  225. 
Saint-Non,  Abbe  de,  Voyage  Pitto- 

resc/ue,  etc.,  i,  213,  225,  226. 
St.  Pierre,  Bemardin  de,  i,  218;  Za 

Chau7niire  Indienne,  2277z.;  Paul 

et  Virginie,  227  n.,  li,  180. 
Salamanca,  early  prmting  at,  i,  101, 

102, 106. 
Salazar  de  Mendoza,  Pedro,  Cronica 

de  el  gran  Cardinal  de  F^fiaha, 

etc.,  n,  69. 
Sallust,  Ofiera  (Freiburger,  Gering, 

and  Kranz),i,  84;  (Gering),  85; 

(Ibarra),  u,  55,  56,  57,  59,  71- 

73,  81. 
Salomon,  Bernard,  i,  199,  203,  204. 
San  Pedro,  Diego  de,  Car  eel  de  Amor 

(F.  de  Basilea),  i,  108;   (Rosen- 
bach),  111. 
Sancha,  Gabriel  de,  ii,  59,  70,75,76. 
Sanguisti,  the  brothers,  i,  180. 
Sanlecque,  Jacques  del,  i,  212. 
Sanlecque,  Jacques  de  II,  i,  212. 
Sanlecque,  Jean  de,  i,  212. 
Sanlecque,  Jean  Eustache  Louis  de, 

specimen,  i,  212,  213. 
Sanlecque,  Marie,  widow  of  J.  E.  L. 

de,  quoted,  i,  267. 


INDEX 


303 


Sanlecque  found rj' ,  specimen ,  i ,  2 1 2 , 

213,  266,  267;   mentioned,  273, 

II,  4. 
SanUuider,  Juan  de,  ii,  82. 
Saragossa,  early  printing  at,  i,  105, 

106. 
Saravia.  See  Ortiz  de  Saravia. 
Sardini,  Giacomo,  Storia  Critica  di 

A'lcolao  Jenson,  i,  177. 
Sauer,  Christopher  I,  ii,  151. 
Sauer,  Christopher  II,  ii,  151. 
Saugi-ain,  C.  M.,  i,  229. 
Savage,    WilUani,  quoted,  ii,   194, 

195. 
Savile,  Sir  H.,  and  the  Eton  Chn- 

sostom,  II,  95  and  n. 
SchefTers,  Jacques,  i,  98. 
Sc.hipper,  J.  J.,  u,  23. 
Schmidt,  J.  M.,  i,  151,  u,  36. 
SchoefTer,  Johann,  Reformacion  der 

Stat  Franc kenfort,   i,    141,  142; 

mentioned,  ii,  206,  207. 
SchoefTer,  Peter,  Hortus  Sanitatis, 

I,  64;  mentioned,  85,  98;  and  see 

Fust  and  SchoefTer. 
Schonsperger,    Hans,   Ditirnale,    i, 

139, 140;  Teuerdanck,  140  and  n. 
Schrij\er,  Pieter,  Laure-Cranfi  voor 

Laurens  Coster  van  Haerlem,  ii, 

29. 
Schwabacher  type,  i,  64,  139,  141, 

142,  145,  149,  150,  153,  155  and 

n.,  156,  157. 
Scotch  modem  face  type,  ii,   193, 

194. 
Selden,  John,   Ofiera,  ii,  102,  136, 

137. 
"Self-spacing"  types,  i,  34,  37. 
Scnsenschmid,  Johann,  i,  62. 
"Series of  Old  Founts"  (Miller  8c 

Hichai-d),ii,  230,  236. 
Serif,  the,  defined,  i,  16  and  n.,  243 

72.;  (irandjean'sformof,  243,  and 

its  influence,  ii,  159. 
Sermo  fratris  Hieronymi  de  Ferra- 

ria,  II,  89. 
Sers'ius,  Oliverius,  i,  79. 
Sessas,  tlie,  i,  162. 


Scversz.,  Jan,  n,  26. 

Sewidl,  Jonathan  M . ,  Carmina  Sacra, 

II,  156. 
Shiikesjjeare,  William  :  tlie  First  Fo- 

liosand Quartos, II,  129;  Hanmer's 

edition,   115,   139;  tlie  "  Boydell 

Sliakspeare,"    123,    144;    divers 

editions  suggested  for  comparison, 

130  n. 
Shakespeare  Exhibition,    Catalogue 

of,  II,  200. 
Shakespeare  Head  Press,  u,  130  n. 
Shakespeare  Press,  il,  123,  144. 
Sheldon,  Gilbert,  ii,  97. 
Sheldonian  Theatre,  II,  133  and  n., 

139. 
Shelton,  Thomas,  n,  133. 
Siculus,  Marinxus,  De  Hispanias 

Laudibus,  i,  107. 
Signs    for  foot-note    references,   ii, 

229. 
Sigiienza  y  Vera,  Juan  J.;u, 53,57  n. 
"Silver  Letter"  (Greek  type),  n, 

95  andn. 
Silvius,  G.,n,  28. 
Simon,  Claude,  i,  220. 
Simon,  C.  F.,  i,  151. 
Simpson,  Benjamin,  ii,  94. 
Smith,  Charlotte,  Elegiac  Sonnets, 

II,  156. 
Smith,  George  F.,  ii,  156. 
Smitli,  John,   Printer's   Grammar, 

II,  120. 
Smith,  John  F.,  Ii,  156. 
Smith,  Richard,  ii,  156. 
Smith,  T.  W.,  takes  over  Caslon 

found r}-,  ii,  105. 
Soci6te   littei-aire    Typographique, 

Kehl,  I,  228. 
Soliani  printing-house,    Modena,  i, 

172. 
Solis,  Antonio  de,  Hiatoria  de  la  Con- 

quista  de  Mexico  (Villa-Diego), 

II,  70  ;  (Sancha),  Tf',  77 . 
Somervile,  William,  The  Chase,  u, 

147. 
Sommaire  des  Sinffularitez  de  Pline, 

1,201. 


304 


INDEX 


Sorboniic,  the,  and  the  first  printers 
in  Fai-is,  i,  83,  84  ;  and  tlie  decline 
of  printing  in  France,  ii,  3. 

"Sorts,"  I,  19. 

Soto,  Perez  de,  ll,  52,  54,  71,  79. 

Southcy,  Robert,  quoted,  ii,  59. 

Sower.  See  Sauer. 

Spain,  types  and  printing  in:  fifteenth 
century,  i,  99-112;  from  1500  to 
1800,  II,  45-87. 

Spanish  Academy,  ii,  79. 

Spanish  books,  chai-acteristic  national 
typography  of,  ii,  80. 

Spanish  typogi-aphy,  fifteenth  cen- 
tuiy,  characteristic  style  and  ex- 
cellence of,  I,  102,  103  ;  assimila- 
tion of  foreign  printers,  103,  104  ; 
decorative  features  of  incunabula 
in,  104;  books  about,  112  n.;  great 
traditions  of,  persisted  in  sixteenth 
century,  ii,  45,  47 ;  influence  of 
Netherlands,  etc.,  on,  48  ;  in  eigh- 
teenth century,  49  ff. 

Specimen-books  and  sheets  of  print- 
ers and  founders,  i,  133-136 ;  and 
see  Chronological  List  of  Specimens 
preceding  Index. 

S/iecidum  Christiani  (Machlinia) ,  i, 
117,  122. 

Sfieculum  Salvationis  (early  Dutch 
editions),  i,  59,  93,  94  and  n. 

S/ieculum  Vitas  Christi  (DeWorde), 
I,  121. 

Spindeler,  Nicolaus,  i,  107,  111. 

Spire,  John  de,  roman  types  used  by, 
I,  72,  73;  mentioned,  79. 

Spire,  Wendelin  de,  roman  types 
used  by,  i,  72  ;  mentioned,  79,  89, 
234. 

Spottiswoode  &  Co.,  ii,  200. 

Stamperia  della  Capilla  del  SS.  Sacra- 
mento, printing-office,  i,  170,171. 

Stamperia  Medicea,  i,  179  ?z. 

Stamperia Reale  (Parma), under Bo- 
doni,  II,  164,  165,  171. 

Stamperia  Vaticana  8c  Camerale, 
specimen,  i,  166-168,  181. 

Standard  Lining  System,  i,  35,  36, 
37,  n,  228. 


Stanhope, Charles,  Earl :  his  "  case," 
I,  23  ;  his  stereotyping  jn-ocess,  ii, 
190. 

Star  Chamber  decree  of  1637,  u, 
94  and  n.,  98. 

Steele,  Isaac,  u,  120. 

Stiffens, Fra.nz,Paleogra/ihieLatine  J 
I,  42  n.;  on  periods  in  history  of 
Latin  writing,  42,  43  ;  quoted,  52, 
56. 

Stephenson,  Blake  &  Co.,  n,  121. 

Stereotype  Office,  England,  rules  of, 
u,  190. 

Stereotyping,  employed  by  F.  Didot, 
I,  218;  the  assignata  and  the  re- 
vival of,  218. 

Stockum,  W.  P.  van.  La  Librairie, 
f  Imfirimerie  et  la  Presse  en  Hol- 
lande  h  travers  Quatre  Slides,  u, 
33  n. 

Stower,  C,  quoted,  n,  120. 

Sti-ahan,  William,  n,  56,  140,  143. 

Sti-ange,  E.  F.,  i,  110  n. 

Strawberry  Hill  Press,  n,  140. 

"Strike,"  in  making  punches,  i,  10. 

Strikes  of  French  printers  in  six- 
teenth century,  ii,  253  ff. 

Stubenvoll,  J.  H.,  i,  150. 

Stuchs,  Georg,  i,  62. 

Subiaco,  first  press  in  Italy  at,  i,  71; 
books  printed  there,  72. 

Sulpitius,  0/ius  GrammaticuTn  (De 
Worde),  i,  121;  (Pynson),  123. 

Suma  de  Confesion,  i,  109. 

Superior  letters  and  figures,  n,  229. 

Swash  italic  capitals,  ii,  228,  229. 

Sweynheym,  Coni-ad,  at  Subiaco,  i, 
71;  at  Rome,  72;  mentioned,  78, 
79. 

Sweynheym  and  Pannartz,  i,  54,  ii, 
207,  213. 

Swinburne,  Henry,  quoted,  u,  73, 
74. 

1  Aaxus,  Ofiera,  n,  11,  12;  jigri- 
cola    (Doves     Press),    ii,    212; 
(Merry mount  Press),  218. 
Tarbe,  E.,u,  184. 


INDEX 


305 


Tarrant,  F.,ii,  236. 

Tasso,  Torquuto,  Gerusalemme  lAb- 
erata  (Pavoni),i,  165;  (Stiinipe- 
rui  ddla  Cappillii  del  SS.  Sacni- 
niento),  170,  171;  (Alt)rizzi), 
174;  (Groppo),  174;  (Z;itta), 
175;  (in  French,  Hiirbin),  210; 
(Didot),227;  (Iniprinierie  Roy- 
ale),  240;  (in  English,  Hatfield), 
u,  131;  (Bensley),  188;  Aminla, 
176. 

Tavemier,  Ameet,  ii,  8  and  n.,  49. 

Taylor,  Isaac.quoted,  i,40  and  w.,  41 . 

Tem/ile  des  Muses,  ii,  34. 

Tfodulus,  Kcloga,  i,  109. 

Terence,  Como'dife,  i,  240. 

Textur  type,  i,  62. 

lliibaudeau,  P.,  La  Lettre  d' Im- 
firimerie,  i,  232  72.,260,ii,  176n., 
177,  242  n. 

Tliiboust  foundry,  i,  269. 

Thierry,  Denys,  i,  211,  269. 

lliomas  a  Kenipis,  De  Imitatione 
Christi,  i,  240. 

Tliomas,  Isaiali,  quoted,  il,  152;  His- 
tory of  Printing  in  America,  155, 
157;  specimen,  156-158;  men- 
tioned, 150  n. 

Thompson,  Chai-les,  Recueil  de  Vi- 
gnettes, etc.,  II,  182,  183. 

Tliompson,  Sir  E.  Maunde,  Intro- 
duction to  Greek  and  Latin  Palae- 
ogra/ihy,  i,  41  ?;.,  quoted,  i,  41, 
48,49,51,52,80,81;  mentioned, 
55. 

Thompson,  John,  ii,  183. 

'lliomson,  James,  The  Seasons  (Stra- 
han),ii,  143;  (Bensley),  122, 147; 
mentioned,  165. 

Thorne, Robert, specimens,  ii,194n., 
196;  mentioned,  122,  175  n.,  179. 

Thorowgood,  William,  specimens, 
II,  196. 

Thunieysser  zum  Thuni,I^onhardt, 
Historia  .  .  .  a  tier  .  .  .  Erdge- 
ivechssen,  i,  142. 

Tipografia  della  Society.  Lettemria, 
n,  175. 

Tyrant  lo  Blanch,  i,  111. 


"Titling-lettcrs,"  ii,  237  and  n. 

Tonson,  Jacol),  ii,  133,  135,  191. 

Tonson,  J.  &  R.,  ii,  112,  115. 

Torivntino,  Ixirenzo,  i,  161,  162. 

Torresjmo,  A.,  i,  74. 

Tortis,  Battistu  de,  ii,  82  «. 

Tory,  Geofroy :  Chanififleury,  i ,  1 88, 
189  n.,  194;  influence  of,  in  the 
disjjlacement  of  gothic  by  roman 
types,  189;  use  of  accents,  etc., 
introduced  by,  189;  mentionc-d, 
86  «., 88, 189,193, 197, 198, 201 , 
231,  233,  235,  237,  n,  126. 

Tour,  Henri  du,  and  Plantin,  ii,  5 ; 
mentioned,  8,  36,  39. 

Toumes,  Jean  de  I,  I,  1 99,  203, 204. 

Tournes,  Jean  de  II,  i,  203. 

Trattner,  J.  T.,  specimen,  i,  156, 
157 ;  mentioned,  150. 

Trecentale  Bodleianum,  n,  200. 

Trincher,  Petlro,  i,  110. 

Trivorias,  (iabriel,  Obserxmtio  Afiol- 
ogetica,  etc.,  i,  206,  207. 

Trott,  Bartholomew,  i,  130. 

Truchet,  Sebasticn,  i,  241  «. 

Tudor  and  Stuart  Library,  ii,  200. 

Tudor  Translations,  il,  201. 

Tuileries,  the,  printing-house  at,  i, 
247. 

Turrecremata,  Cardinal,  Medita- 
tiones,  i,  62,  71. 

Type,  defined  and  described,  i,  15. 
1 6 ;  measurement  of,  28  fF. ;  names 
of  sizes  of :  in  England,  seventeenth 
century,  i,  24,  25,  26  n.,  27; 
varied  in  different  countries,  25, 
26,  27;  ti-aditional  names  aban- 
doned for  point  svstem  bv  Didot, 
32. 

Ty])e  Facsimile  Society,  Publications 
of,  I,  78,  80. 

Ty]X'-ciisting,  different  methods  of, 
I,  7;  hand-casting,  8,  9,  14n.;  ma- 
chine-casting, 13;  the  two  meth- 
ods compared,  13. 

Type-cutters,  early,  i,  5,  6,  133. 

Tyjie-forms  of  fifteenth  century, 
cJasses  of,  i,  59,  60. 


306 


INDEX 


Tvpc-iuetal,  in  early  types,  i,  9,  10; 
in  modem  types,  13,  14. 

Types,  method  of  study  of,  i,  131, 
132;  of  fiftcentli  century,  tlie 
clussicsof  ty])e-history,  132;  dete- 
rionition  in,  in  sixteenth  century, 
136  ft". ,  142;  cflFect  of  mixture  of 
different  sizes  and  styles  of,  161, 
162,  163,  168;  specially  designed 
and  privately  cut,  value  of,  dis- 
cussed, II,  218,  219;  selection 
of,  for  modem  composing-room, 
227  if.;  undesii-able  kinds  of,  243, 
244. 

Types  i-ecently  cut  (private  fonts 
starred):  *Ashendene,  ii,  213; 
Auriol,  223;  *Avon,211;  Batardes 
Coulees,  Les,  237;  *Brook,  213; 
Cadmus  Old  Style,  233 ;  *Cam- 
bridge,  214;  *Centaur,  217; 
*Chaucer,  207;  Cheltenham,  217, 
235;  Cloister,  233,  234;  Cochin, 
Le,  223;  *Distel,  222;  *Doves, 
212  ;  *Endeavour,  214  ;*Florence, 
215;  Foumier-le-jeune,  Le,  224, 
237;  Garamond  (modem  version) , 
234;  *Golden,  206;  Grasset,  223; 
*Humanistic,  2 1 8;  Kennerley ,  234, 
235;  *King's  Fount,  211;  *Mer- 
rymount,  217;  *Montaigne,  216, 
217;  *Montallegro,  214,  215; 
Moreau-le-jeune,  Le,  224,  237; 
Nicolas- Cochin, Le,  223; Old  Flem- 
ish Black,  236;  Old  Tudor  Black, 
236;  *Otter  (Greek),  215,  216 
and  n.;  *Prayer  Book,  214;  *Ric- 
cardi,  215;  *Troy,  207;  *Vale, 
211,  213;  Weiss  Fraktur,  221; 
*Zilver,  222. 

Typographia  Medicea,  Alfihabetum 
ArabicuTTiy  i,  134,  179  n. 

U ,  CAPITAL,  V  used    for,  in   early 

times,  I,  22;  differentiated  from 

V,  22  n. 
Uncial    letters,    how    distinguished 

from  book-hand  capitals,  i,  44. 
Unger,  J.  F.,  specimen,  I,  157,  158; 

mentioned,  38,  149,  n,  43. 
Ungut,  Meinardus,  i.  111. 


Ungut  and  Stanislaus,  i,  106,  108, 

110. 
United  States  Type  Founders'  Asso- 
ciation and  the  point  system,  i,  33, 

34. 
University  of  Paris  and  the  copying 

of  Mss.,  n,  247,  248. 
University  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass. , 

II,  218. 
Unknown  Printer  of  Salamanca,  i, 

101,  106,  107,  110,  HI. 
Utrecht,    early  printing  at,   i,   94, 

95;  EUzevirs  at,  n,  15. 

V ,  CAPITAL,  originally  stood  for  U 
also,  I,  22  and  n.,  23. 

Vagad,  G.  F.  de,  Cronica  deAragon, 
I,  104,  110. 

Vale  Press,  books  issued  by,  n,  210, 
211. 

Valencia,  first  Spanish  press  set  up 
in,  I,  105;  and  the  revival  of  print- 
ing, II,  58. 

Van  Dyck,  Abraham,  u,  96. 

Van  Dyck,  Christoffel :  his  charac- 
ters, n,  37,  39,  43,  44,  and  their 
fate,  37;  mentioned,  19,  20,  21, 
22,  23,  35. 

Van  Hoochstraten,  Michiel,  n,  27. 

Van  Hout,  J.,  specimen,  i,  134,  n, 
40. 

Van  der  Keere,  Henric.  See  Tour, 
Henri  du. 

Van  Oosten  de  Bruyn,  G.  W.,  De 
Stad  Haarlem,  etc.,  n,  34. 

Van  der  Putte,  Isaac,  n,  35. 

Vasari,  Giorgio,  Le  File  de'  fiiU  Ec- 
cellenti  Architetti,  etc.,  i,  161, 
162. 

Vascosan,  Michel,  i,  191,  199,  200. 

Vatican  printing-office,  specimen,  i, 
134,  179. 

Vautrollier,  Thomas,  n,  90. 

Veldener,  Jan,  i,  96,  115,  122. 

Venice,  airly  printing  at,  i,  72  ff.; 
a  great  centre  of  printing,  77 ,  78  ; 
wide  vogue  of  types  of,  90 ;  illus- 
trated books  printedat, eighteenth 


INDEX 


307 


century,  173-176;  foundries  in, 
179. 

V6rard,  Antoine,  i,  88. 

Vergetios,  Angelos,  i,  236. 

Fersi  Sciolti  di  7Ve  Fjccellenti  Mo- 
derni  yiulori,  i,  172,  173. 

Vesalius,  Andreas,  De  Humani  Cor- 
fioria  Fabrica,  i,  143,  144. 

Veterum  Alathematicorum,  i,  212. 

Vibert,  type-cutter,  ii,  176  n.,  178. 

Vidoue,  Pierre,  i,  195. 

Villa-Diego,  Bernardo  de,  ii,  70,  76. 

Villanova,  A.  de,  Rudimenta  Gram- 
matics, I,  107. 

Villegas,  E.  M.  de.  Las  Eroticaa,  n, 
76. 

Vindel,  P.,  Bibliograjia  Grajica,  n, 
60  and  n. 

Virgil,  Ofxera  (ms.)  ,  i,  78 ;  (Gering) , 
85;  (Aldus),  128-130;  (Manni), 
171;  {edition  du  Louvre),  217, 
230,  231;  (Imprimerie  Royale), 
240;  (ELlzevir,  1636),  ii,  17, 
(1676),  18;  (Baskerville) ,  109, 
111,  139;  (Tonson),  133;  j^neid, 
I,  208;  Bucolics,  218;  Georgics, 

.    226,227. 

Vita,  La,  et  MetamorfoseocT  Ovidio, 
I,  203. 

Vitr6,  Antoine,  quoted,  u,  253 ; 
mentioned,  i,  208,  209,  236. 

Volpe  (Uella),  Lelio  and  Petronio,  i, 
172. 

Volpi-Comino,  printing-house,  Pa- 
dua, I,  172. 

Voltaire,  Arouetde,  Kehl  editions  of, 
1,228,229. 

Vorsterman,  Willem,  ii,  25,  26. 

Voskens,  Dirk,  ii,  35,  96,  100. 

Vostre,  Simon,  i,  88. 

Voyage  de  Jean  de  Mandaville,  i, 
94. 

Vytwerf,  H.,  ii,  36. 

W  AKLARD,  type-cutter,  i,  216,  ii, 
176  and  n.,  177. 

V^^aldfoghel,  Pixxrope  :  his  "artifi- 
cial writing  "  at  Avignon,  i,  82. 


Waldis,  Burkliard,  Fabeln,  i,  146; 

Urafirung  und  Herkumen,  etc., 

146. 
Walker,  Elmer)-,  ii,  211,  212,  213, 

216. 
W'alpcrgcn,  Peter,  u,  97. 
Walpole,   Hoi-ace,  Strawberry  Hill 

Press,  u,  140  ;  quoted,  175;  men- 
tioned, 165. 
Walsingham,  Thomas,  Huttoria  Bre- 

vis,    II,    128;     Y/iodigma    A'eut- 

trift,  128. 
Walton,  Brian,  ii,  92,  99. 
Walton,  Izaak,  Lives,  u,  132,  133. 
Watelet,  C.  H.,  L'jirt  de  Peindre, 

1,214. 
Watson,  James,  History  of  the  Art  of 

Fainting,  ii,  44,  100;    specimen, 

44. 
Watts,  John,  ii,  101. 
"Wayside  Series,"  n,  230. 
Werdet,    Edmond,    Etudes    Bibiio- 

gra/ihiques    (Didot    family) ,  ii, 

185  n. 
Wetstein,  G.,  n,  32,  33,  36. 
Wetstein,  Rudolph,  n,  36,  38. 
Whitchurch,  Edward,  u,  129  n. 
W'hite,  Gilbert,  A'atural  History  of 

Selborne,  ii,  118. 
Whittingham,   Cliarles   I,    n,   114, 

198,  204. 
Whittingham,  Charles  II,  n,    198, 

204,  237. 
W^ilkins,  David,  Pentateuch,  u,  102; 

mentioned,  136. 
Wilkins,  John,  Essay  towarda  a  Real 

Character,  u,  95  n. 
Wilson,  Alexander,  types,  ii,  116, 

117;  specimens,  117;  mentioned, 

120,143,  193,  232. 
Wilson  foundry,  specimen,  n,   193, 

194. 
Winckelmann,  J.  J.,  Geachic/ite  der 

JCunst  des  Alterthuma,  i,  148. 
Winship,  G.  P.,  quoted,  i,  113. 
Woide,  Charles  G.,  .Yovum  leata- 

mentum  Gntcum,  u,  121. 
Wolf,  G.,  I,  85,  86. 


308 


INDEX 


WolflFchaten,  Balthazar  von,  ii,  36. 
Wood,  T.,ii,  136. 
JVorcester  Collection  of  Sacred  Har- 

7iiony,  II,  157. 
Wordc,  M'ynkyn  de,  quoted,  i,  1 14 ; 

his  types,  120,  121;  mentioned,  ii, 

88,  89  n.,  90,  99. 
Wotton,  Sir    Henry,    Elements  of 

Architecture,  ii,  201. 
Wren,  Christopher,  Parentalia,  ii, 

214. 
Wright,  T.,  II,  98. 
Writing,  history  of,  i,  38  ff. 

yviMENEZ,  Franc,   De  la   JN'atura 

Angelica,  ii,  61. 
Ximenez  de  Cisneros,  Cardinal  Fran- 

ciscuSjComplutensian  Polyglot  due 


to,  II,  63;  mentioned,  46,  65;  and 
fiee  (iomez  de  Castro. 
Ximeno,  Josef,  ii,  76. 

Young,  Arthur,  quoted,  ii,  164  n. 
Yriarte,  Juan  de,  Obraa  Sueltas,  ii, 
52,  79. 

Gainer,  Gunther,  i,  65,  ii,  206, 
207. 

Zatta,  A.,  books  printed  by,  i,  174, 
175;  specimen,  186. 

Zeigler,  H.  A.  von,  Asiatische  Ba- 
nise,  I,  147. 

Zilverdistel  Press,  ii,  222. 

Zingt,  Christian,  i,  156. 

Zonca,  Vittorio,  JVovo  Teatro  di  Ma- 
chine et  Edijicii,  i,  169. 


c;nilTHFRN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACtLlTY^ 


CENTRAL  UNIVERSITY 


AA    000  894  289 
University  of  California,  San  Diego 

DATE  DUE 


fiP^ZZ  \3T2 


MAY  15 


APR  l-b  Vj/o 


m'  ^  •^- 


1£ 


P  :] 


■,-\-f 


375 


NOV  3  Q  1376 

DEC  14  1985 

JAN  10  1989 

ocrio?(iK> 


CI  39 


UCSD  Libr. 


